And it came to pass in the fourth year of Jehoiakim the son of Josiah king of Judah, [that] this word came unto Jeremiah from the LORD, saying,
In the fourth year of Jehoiakim – See Jer 25:1 note. The present chapter belongs to the very end of that year. The capture of Jerusalem by Nebuchadnezzar took place early in Jehoiakims fourth year, long before the writing of Jehoiakims scroll. The humiliation seems to have sunk deeply into the heart of Jehoiakim, and when Jeremiah prophesied extended dominion to the Chaldaeans Jer 36:29, his anger knew no bounds. It was the fact that judgment had begun which made it expedient to gather Jeremiahs predictions into one volume, with the object:
(1) of inducing the people to repent, and
(2) of persuading the king to be a true subject of the Chaldaean empire.
Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
CHAPTER XXXVI
God commands Jeremiah to write down in one roll or volume all
the predictions he had uttered against Israel and Judah, and
all the surrounding nations, from the day of his vocation to
the prophetic office, that the house of Judah might have
abundant warning of the dreadful calamities with which their
country was about to be visited, if not prevented by a timely
repentance, 1-3.
The prophet employs Baruch the scribe, the son of Neriah, to
write from his mouth all the words of the Lord, and then to
read them publicly upon a fast day in the Lord’s house, 4-8.
A general fast is proclaimed in the following year, viz., the
fifth year of the reign of Jeheiakim; upon which occasion
Baruch, in obedience to the prophet’s command, reads the words
of Jeremiah to all the people at the entry of the new gate of
the temple, 9, 10.
The princes, hearing of this, send for Baruch, who reads the
roll to them; at the contents of which they are greatly
alarmed, and solemnly resolve to give information to the king,
at the same time advising both the prophet and his scribe to
hide themselves, 11-19.
Jehoiakim likewise having sent for the roll, Jehudi reads to
him a part; and then the king, though advised to the contrary
by some of has princes, having cut the leaves, throws the whole
into the fire, 20-25,
and orders Jeremiah and Baruch to be seized; but they could not
be found, because a special providence of God had concealed
them, 26.
Jeremiah is commanded to re-write his prophecies, and to
denounce the judgments of God against the king who had
destroyed the first roll, 27-31.
Baruch accordingly writes from the mouth of Jeremiah a new
copy, with numerous additions, 32.
NOTES ON CHAP. XXXVI
Verse 1. And it came to pass in the fourth year] About the end of this year, see Jer 36:9. This discourse also bears its own date, and was probably delivered at a time when the people enjoyed peace, and were about to celebrate one of their annual fasts.
Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible
Jehoiakim was three years a tributary to Nebuchadnezzar, as we read, 2Ki 24:1, then he rebelled; which three years are judged to be the sixth, seventh, and eighth years of his reign, for Pharaoh-nechoh set him up, to whom he was first a tributary, as we read, 2Ki 23:35. Pharaoh-nechoh having conquered him, Jehoiakim became servant to the conqueror three years, then rebelled; upon which the armies of the Chaldeans, with the Syrians, &c., came up against him, and carried him away. This word of the Lord came to Jeremiah the first year that he was tributary to the king of Babylon, which was the fourth year of his reign.
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
1. fourth yearThe command towrite the roll was given in the fourth year, but it was not readpublicly till the fifth year. As Isaiah subjoined to his predictionsa history of events confirming his prophecies (Isa 36:1-22;Isa 37:1-38; Isa 38:1-22;Isa 39:1-8), so Jeremiahalso in the thirty-seventh through forty-third chapters; but heprefaces his history with the narrative of an incident that occurredsome time ago, showing that he, not only by word, but in writing, andthat twice, had testified all that he about to state as havingsubsequently come to pass [GROTIUS].At the end of Jehoiakim’s third year, Nebuchadnezzar enrolled an armyagainst Jerusalem and took it in the end of the fifth or beginning ofthe sixth year, carrying away captive Jehoiakim, Daniel, c. Jehoiakimreturned the same year, and for three years was tributary: then hewithheld tribute. Nebuchadnezzar returned and took Jerusalem, andcarried off Jehoiakim, who died on the road. This harmonizes thischapter with 2Ki 24:1-20Dan 1:1-21. See on Jer22:19.
Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
And it came to pass in the fourth year of Jehoiakim the son of Josiah king of Judah,…. Eighteen years before the destruction of Jerusalem:
[that] this word came unto Jeremiah from the Lord; the following order to write in a roll all his prophecies he had hitherto delivered:
saying; as follows:
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
In the fourth year of the reign of Jehoiakim the word of the Lord came to Jeremiah, bidding him commit to writing all the addresses he had previously delivered, that Judah might, if it were possible, still regard the threatenings and return (Jer 36:1-3). In accordance with this command, he got all the words of the Lord written down in a book by his attendant Baruch, with the further instruction that this should be read on the fast-day in the temple to the people who came out of the country into Jerusalem (Jer 36:4-8). When, after this, in the ninth month of the fifth year of Jehoiakim, a fast was appointed, Baruch read the prophecies to the assembled people in the chamber of Gemariah in the temple. Michaiah the son of Gemariah mentioned the matter to the princes who were assembled in the royal palace; these then sent for Baruch with the roll, and made him read it to them. But they were so frightened by what was read to them that they deemed it necessary to inform the king regarding it (Jer 36:9-19). At their advice, the king had the roll brought and some of it read before him; but scarcely had some few columns been read, when he cut the roll into pieces and threw them into the pan of coals burning in the room, at the same time commanding that Baruch and Jeremiah should be brought to him; but God hid them (Jer 36:20-26). After this roll had been burnt, the Lord commanded the prophet to get all his words written on a new roll, and to predict an ignominious fate for King Jehoiakim; whereupon Jeremiah once more dictated his addresses to Baruch (Jer 36:27-32).
Since Jeremiah, according to Jer 36:3, Jer 36:6, Jer 36:7, is to get his addresses written down that Baruch may be able to read them publicly on the fast-day, now at hand, because he himself was prevented from getting to the temple, the intention of the divine command was not to make the prophet put down in writing and gather together all the addresses he had hitherto given, but the writing down is merely to serve as a means of once more presenting to the people the whole contents of his prophecies, in order to induce them, wherever it was possible, to return to the Lord. In the fourth year of Jehoiakim, Nebuchadnezzar, after vanquishing the Egyptians at the Euphrates, advanced against Judah, took Jerusalem, and made Jehoiakim tributary. In the same year, too, Jeremiah had delivered the prophecy regarding the giving up of Judah and all nations for seventy years into the power of the king of Babylon (Jer 25); this was before he had been bidden write down all his addresses. For, that he did not receive this command till towards the end of the fourth year, may be gathered with certainty from the fact that the public reading of the addresses, after they were written down, was to take place on the fast-day, which, according to Jer 36:9, was not held till the ninth month of the fifth year. The only doubtful point is, whether they were written down and read before or after the first capture of Jerusalem by Nebuchadnezzar. Most modern commentators take the former view; e.g., Hitzig says, briefly and decidedly, “According to Jer 36:29, the Chaldeans had not as yet appeared in the country.” But this is not mentioned in Jer 36:29. The threatening in this verse, “The king of Babylon shall come and destroy this land, and exterminate men and beasts from it,” does not prove that the king of Babylon had not yet come to Judah, but merely that the country had not yet been destroyed, and men and cattle exterminated from it. When Jerusalem was first taken, Nebuchadnezzar contented himself with subjecting Jehoiakim under his supreme authority and requiring the payment of tribute, as well as carrying away some of the vessels of the temple and some hostages. The devastation of Judah and the extirpation of men and beasts did not commence till the second subjugation of Jerusalem under Jehoiakim, and was completed when the city was utterly destroyed, in Zedekiah’s time, on its third subjugation. The settlement of the question that has been raised depends on the determination of the object for which the special fast-day in the fifth year was appointed, whether for averting the threatened invasion by the Chaldeans, or as a memorial of the first capture of Jerusalem. This question we have already so far decided in the Commentary on Daniel, at Jer 1:1, where it is stated that the fast was held in remembrance of that day in the year when Jerusalem was taken for the first time by Nebuchadnezzar; we have also remarked in the same place, that Jehoiakim either appointed or permitted this special fast “for the purpose of rousing the popular feeling against the Chaldeans, to whom they were in subjection, – to evoke in the people a religious enthusiasm in favour of resistance; for Jehoiakim keenly felt the subjugation by the Chaldeans, and from the first thought of revolt.” However, every form of resistance to the king of Babylon could only issue in the ruin of Judah. Accordingly, Jeremiah made Baruch read his prophecies publicly to the people assembled in the temple on that day, “by way of counterpoise to the king’s desire;” the prophet also bade him announce to the king that the king of Babylon would come, i.e., return, to destroy the land, and to root out of it both men and beasts. These circumstances give the first complete explanation of the terror of the princes when they listened to the reading of the book (Jer 36:16), as well as of the wrath of the king, exhibited by his cutting the book in pieces and throwing it into the fire: he saw that the addresses of the prophet were more calculated to damp those religious aspirations of the people on which he based his hopes, than to rouse the nation against continued submission to the Chaldeans. Not till now, too, when the object of the appointment of the fast-day was perceived, did the command given by God to the prophet to write down his prophecies appear in its proper light. Shortly before, and in the most earnest manner, Jeremiah had reminded the people of their opposition to the word of God preached by him for twenty-three years, and had announced to them, as a punishment, the seventy years’ subjugation to the Chaldeans and the desolation of the country; yet this announcement of the fearful chastisement had made no deeper or more lasting impression on the people. Hence, so long as the threatened judgment was still in the distance, not much could be expected to result from the reading of his addresses in the temple on the fast-day, so that the command of God to do so should appear quite justified. But the matter took a considerably different from when Nebuchadnezzar had actually taken Jerusalem and Jehoiakim had submitted. The commencement of the judgments which had been threatened by God was the proper moment for laying before the hearts of the people, once more, the intense earnestness of the divine message, and for urging them to deeper penitence. Just at this point the reading of the whole contents of the prophecies delivered by Jeremiah appears like a final attempt to preserve the people, on whom judgment has fallen, from complete destruction.
Fuente: Keil & Delitzsch Commentary on the Old Testament
| The Roll Written by Baruch. | B. C. 607. |
1 And it came to pass in the fourth year of Jehoiakim the son of Josiah king of Judah, that this word came unto Jeremiah from the LORD, saying, 2 Take thee a roll of a book, and write therein all the words that I have spoken unto thee against Israel, and against Judah, and against all the nations, from the day I spake unto thee, from the days of Josiah, even unto this day. 3 It may be that the house of Judah will hear all the evil which I purpose to do unto them; that they may return every man from his evil way; that I may forgive their iniquity and their sin. 4 Then Jeremiah called Baruch the son of Neriah: and Baruch wrote from the mouth of Jeremiah all the words of the LORD, which he had spoken unto him, upon a roll of a book. 5 And Jeremiah commanded Baruch, saying, I am shut up; I cannot go into the house of the LORD: 6 Therefore go thou, and read in the roll, which thou hast written from my mouth, the words of the LORD in the ears of the people in the LORD‘s house upon the fasting day: and also thou shalt read them in the ears of all Judah that come out of their cities. 7 It may be they will present their supplication before the LORD, and will return every one from his evil way: for great is the anger and the fury that the LORD hath pronounced against this people. 8 And Baruch the son of Neriah did according to all that Jeremiah the prophet commanded him, reading in the book the words of the LORD in the LORD‘s house.
In the beginning of Ezekiel’s prophecy we meet with a roll written in vision, for discovery of the things therein contained to the prophet himself, who was to receive and digest them, Eze 2:9; Eze 2:10; Eze 3:1. Here, in the latter end of Jeremiah’s prophecy, we meet with a roll written in fact, for discovery of the things contained therein to the people, who were to hear and give heed to them; for the written word and other good books are of great use both to ministers and people. We have here,
I. The command which God gave to Jeremiah to write a summary of his sermons, of all the reproofs and all the warnings he had given in God’s name to his people, ever since he first began to be a preacher, in the thirteenth year of Josiah, to this day, which was in the fourth year of Jehoiakim, Jer 36:2; Jer 36:3. What had been only spoken must now be written, that it might be reviewed, and that it might spread the further and last the longer. What had been spoken at large, with frequent repetitions of the same things, perhaps in the same words (which has its advantage one way), must now be contracted and put into less compass, that the several parts of it might be better compared together, which has its advantage another way. What they had heard once must be recapitulated, and rehearsed to them again, that what was forgotten might be called to mind again and what made no impression upon them at the first hearing might take hold of them when they heard it the second time. And what was perhaps already written, and published in single sermons, must be collected into one volume, that none might be lost. Note, The writing of the scripture is by divine appointment. And observe the reason here given for the writing of this roll (v. 3): It may be the house of Judah will hear. Not that the divine prescience was at any uncertainty concerning the event: with that there is no peradventure; God knew certainly that they would deal very treacherously, Isa. xlviii. 8. But the divine wisdom directed to this as a proper means for attaining the desired end: and, if it failed, they would be the more inexcusable. And, though God foresaw that they would not hear, he did not tell the prophet so, but prescribed this method to him as a probably one to be used, in the hopes that they would hear, that is, heed and regard what they heard, take notice of it and mix faith with it: for otherwise our hearing the word, though an angel from heaven were to read or preach it to us, would stand us in no stead. Now observe here, 1. What it is hoped they will thus hear: All that evil which I purpose to do unto them. Note, The serious consideration of the certain fatal consequences of sin will be of great use to us to bring us to God. 2. What it is hoped will be produced thereby: They will hear, that they may return every man from his evil way. Note, The conversion of sinners from their evil courses is that which ministers should aim at in preaching; and people hear the word in vain if that point be not gained with them. To what purpose do we hear of the evil God will bring upon us for sin if we continue, notwithstanding, to do evil against him? 3. Of what vast advantage their consideration and conversion will be to them: That I may forgive their iniquity. This plainly implies the honour of God’s justice, with which it is not consistent that he should forgive the sin unless the sinner repent of it and turn from it; but it plainly expresses the honour of his mercy, that he is very ready to forgive sin and only waits till the sinner be qualified to receive forgiveness, and therefore uses various means to bring us to repentance, that he may forgive.
II. The instructions which Jeremiah gave to Baruch his scribe, pursuant to the command he had received from God, and the writing of the roll accordingly, v. 4. God bade Jeremiah write, but, it should seem, he had not the pen of a ready writer, he could not write fast, or fair, so as Baruch could, and therefore he made use of him as his amanuensis. St. Paul wrote but few of his epistles with his own hand, Gal 6:11; Rom 16:22. God dispenses his gifts variously; some have a good faculty at speaking, others at writing, and neither can say to the other, We have no need of you, 1 Cor. xii. 21. The Spirit of God dictated to Jeremiah, and he to Baruch, who had been employed by Jeremiah as trustee for him in his purchase of the field (ch. xxxii. 12) and now was advanced to be his scribe and substitute in his prophetical office; and, if we may credit the apocryphal book that bears his name, he was afterwards himself a prophet to the captives in Babylon. Those that begin low are likely to rise high, and it is good for those that are designed for prophets to have their education under prophets and to be serviceable to them. Baruch wrote what Jeremiah dictated in a roll of a book on pieces of parchment, or vellum, which were joined together, the top of one to the bottom of the other, so making one long scroll, which was rolled perhaps upon a staff.
III. The orders which Jeremiah gave to Baruch to read what he had written to the people. Jeremiah, it seems was shut up, and could not go to the house of the Lord himself, v. 5. Though he was not a close prisoner, for then there would have been no occasion to send officers to seize him (v. 26), yet he was forbidden by the king to appear in the temple, was shut out thence where he might be serving God and doing good, which was as bad to him as if he had been shut up in a dungeon. Jehoiakim was ripening apace for ruin when he thus silenced God’s faithful messengers. But, when Jeremiah could not go to the temple himself, he sent one that was deputed by him to read to the people what he would himself have said. Thus St. Paul wrote epistles to the churches which he could not visit in person. Nay, it was what he himself had often said to them. Note, The writing and repeating of the sermons that have been preached may contribute very much towards the answering of the great ends of preaching. What we have heard and known it is good for us to hear again, that we may know it better. To preach and write the same thing is safe and profitable, and many times very necessary (Phil. iii. 1), and we must be glad to hear a good word from God, though we have it, as here, at second hand. Both ministers and people must do what they can when they cannot do what they would. Observe, When God ordered the reading of the roll he said, It may be they will hear and return from their evil ways, v. 3. When Jeremiah orders it, he says, It may be they will pray (they will present their supplications before the Lord) and will return from their evil way. Note, Prayer to God for grace to turn us is necessary in order to our turning; and those that are convinced by the word of God of the necessity of returning to him will present their supplications to him for that grace. And the consideration of this, that great is the anger which God has pronounced against us for sin, should quicken both our prayers and our endeavours. Now, according to these orders, Baruch did read out of the book the words of the Lord, whenever there was a holy convocation, v. 8.
Fuente: Matthew Henry’s Whole Bible Commentary
JEREMIAH – CHAPTER 36
REACTING RASHLY TO GOD’S WORD
This chapter tells how and why Jeremiah’s earlier prophecies came to be written down – and the reaction of those to whom the scroll was first read. Most biblical scholars believe that this writing included the first 25 chapters of the Book of Jeremiah as we know it today.
Vs. 1-3: A COMMAND TO WRITE OF JUDGMENT
1. This incident is dated by the fourth year of Jehoiakim’s reign (655 B.C.) which was also the 23rd year of Jeremiah’s prophetic ministry, (vs. 1; comp. Jer 25:1-3; Jer 45:1; Jer 46:2; 2Ki 24:1).
2. Jeremiah is commanded to acquire a scroll, and to write on it all that the Lord has spoken to him about Israel, Judah and the nations -from the days of Josiah until the present, (vs. 2; 1:9-10; comp. Jer 3:3-10; Jer 23:14; Jer 32:30-32; Jer 25:9-29; etc.).
3. Perhaps the people of Judah would, thereby, be so impressed by the imminence of impending calamity that they would repent and find forgiveness, (vs. 3; Jer 26:3; comp. Isa 1:16-19).
Fuente: Garner-Howes Baptist Commentary
The Prophet relates in this chapter a history worthy of being remembered, and very useful to us; for he says that he wrote down by God’s command what he had previously taught in the Temple, and also that he sent that summary by Baruch to be recited in the Temple, that the report of this spread, and that the king’s counsellors called to them Baruch, and that when they heard what was written in the volume, they brought word to the king, having, however, first admonished Baruch to conceal himself, together with Jeremiah, lest the king should be exasperated against them. And so it happened, for the king, being instantly filled with indignation, ordered Jeremiah and Baruch to be taken, that they might be put to death; but they were hidden and protected through God’s favor. We shall hereafter see what the king by his obduracy had effected, even to cause the Prophet to speak more boldly against him.
Fuente: Calvin’s Complete Commentary
CUTTING THE HEART OUT OF THE BIBLE
Jer 36:1-32
(Prof. Kents visit to Minneapolis was the occasion of this sermon. The author addressed him a letter, requesting his presence in the city auditorium on the Sunday night of its delivery. Prof. Kent responded, expressing regret that a previous engagement precluded his attendance at the auditorium. Near the close of the sermon, he appeared with two friends, and finding the house packed, and not being recognized by the ushers, he stood and gave earnest attention to the last ten minutes of this address. A pleasant correspondence between Prof. Kent and the author ensued.Ed.)
IN the course of time, two men have made themselves famous by the employment of the penknife on Holy Scripture. The first of them is Jehoiakim, son of Josiah, King of Judah. The second was Prof. Charles Foster Kent, Woolsey Professor of Biblical Literature in Yale University.
The first consumed what he cut from the Scriptures in a fire burning on the hearth of his winter house. The second employed the portions that he removed from the sacred writings to feed the consuming flame of modern criticism.
Having read the thirty-sixth chapter of Jeremiah, one wonders whether Jehoiakim would ever have been heard of had he not been able to claim the paternity of Josiah, a good king; and, after having studied The Shorter Bible, one is equally curious as to whether Prof. Kents production would ever have been taken seriously had he not been able to attach to his name Woolsey Professor of Biblical Literature in Yale University.
Some years since, the world was treated to a twentieth century translation of the New Testament. I purchased a copy, perused its pages and passed it to the waste basket. I doubt if there is an individual in the house tonight who can recall the author or authors of this endeavor; and yet, as compared with The Shorter Bible, it was really a serious attempt at the translation of the New Testament Scriptures into the modern tongue, and it had the incalculable virtue of being free from the indictment of deliberate mutilation.
It is impossible to read the title of Prof. Kents attempt at Bible making, without being reminded of the Jehoiakim incident, and it is not easy to peruse the Professors abbreviation of The Book without instituting parallelisms between the work of the two men. I want to do this, however, by a broad discussion of the questions involved between conservatives and critics, between Bible believers and Bible destroyers.
Turning then to the thirty-sixth chapter of Jeremiah, I am impressed with three great facts, therein set forth, 1st, The Only Method of Bible Making; 2nd, The Motive-Type of Modernism, 3rd, The Dire Menace to the Modernist.
THE ONLY METHOD OF BIBLE MAKING
And it came to pass in the fourth year of Jehoiakim the son of Josiah king of Judah, that this Word came unto Jeremiah from the Lord, saying (Jer 36:1)
Every part of the Book worthy to be called the Bible, must come from the Lord. If not, The Book would be a misnomer. If not, The Shorter Bible would be a correct title. The claim of Divine origin for the contents of the Book, calls for its every sentence.
In The Menace of Modernism, I have called attention to an experience in opening the Old Testament Scriptures at many points and searching for some such sentence as this, Now the Word of the Lord came unto the Prophet, saying, to find, the same in every instance and that with comparative ease. A notable Bible scholar has called attention to the fact that the single Book of Leviticus, containing twenty-seven chapters, holds the expression, The Lord spake unto Moses, or its equivalent, fifty-six times, or an average of twice for each chapter, while the thus saith the Lord or some sentence expressing the same idea is used more than 2,000 times in the Old Testament alone!
Dr. Gaussen, professor of Systematic Theology, Geneva, is authority for the statement that with the single exception of Theodore of Mopseustia, eight centuries of Christian history passed before a single Doctor of Divinity disowned the plenary inspiration of the same. In that time the heresy was regarded as so violent as to be advocated only by Gnostics, Manicheans and Mohametans.
In spite of certain heresies which he has expressed, Dr. Charles Edward Jefferson of the Broadway Tabernacle, New York, admits that the doctrine of inspiration is, in our day, fundamental to every other doctrine.
In that respect there has been no change since Jeremiah recorded the Jehoiakim incident. Of the Revelation it was then written as faith now affirms, This Word came * * from the Lord.
In the pages of the Book it takes on permanent form.
Take thee a roll of a book, and write therein all the Words I have spoken unto thee against Israel, and against Judah, and against all the nations, from the day I spake unto thee, from the days of Josiah, even unto this day (Jer 36:2).
In false religions, oral traditions have taken and held supreme place, and when finally committed to writing they have acknowledged their oral origin. From the beginning the Bible was built after another manner. When, in the mount, God gave to Moses the decalog, He demonstrated at once the Divine wisdom and the Divine custom. Instead of speaking these words to Moses and leaving them to be transmitted by word of Moses mouth to the people, He wrote them on tables of stone with the tip of His own finger, putting the Law from the very first into permanent form. When therefore a modernist says, God did not write the Bible. Every page of it was written by men. The lights and shadows of his moods, the depression and rapture of his spirit play over its pages. Its contents came up out of the cavernous depths of the human heart, he takes utter issue with the Scriptures themselves as to their origin, not to mention contrasting contents of the human heart.
When this roll of the book was written, all the words therein were spoken by the Lord, and Jeremiah listened to them, and, as he received, dictated to Baruch, the son of Neriah, his scribe or secretary, who wrote them, as he confesses with ink in the book (Jer 36:18).
Jeremiah, into whose ears the Lord spake, was no more the author of the thoughts or sentences received, than was Baruch to whom he repeated them and by whose pen they took permanent form. That is why Peter could speak of Davids writings as this Scripture * * which the Holy Ghost by the mouth of David spake (Act 1:16). That is why Paul, writing his Epistle to the Hebrews and quoting the message of David in the 95th Psalm, says, Even as He, the Holy Ghost, has said and assigns in the 7th verse, that Scripture to the same Divine origin. The same Apostle, in Act 28:25 quotes from Isaiah the Prophet and yet says of the quotation, Well spake the Holy Ghost.
History consulted, it is a fact that the writing of the decalog, by the Divine finger, gave to it no more permanent form than characterizes every sentence of Holy Scripture. The devils destroying devices are a multitude and yet it is doubtful if in twenty centuries he has even successfully discredited, much less destroyed, a single statement.
Pres. Kyle of Xenia Theological Seminary had occasion for his statement, Macaulays New Zealander may one day take his stand on a broken arch of London Bridge to sketch the ruins of St. Pauls. Events at least as wonderful have taken place in our world within the last five thousand years, but if ever this strange fancy shall have become a stranger fact, out of the vast solitude this prophecy from the Heavens shall thunder in his ears, The grass withereth, the flower fadeth; surely the people is grass, but the Word of our God shall stand forever (Isa 40:7-8).
The messages of the Book are popularized by the mouth of man. Jeremiah became Gods mouthpiece to the people, and Baruch became a secretary to the Most High. The first pronounced all these words with his mouth and the second wrote them with ink in the book. When told that man wrote practically all of the Bible, and one concludes that it is purely human and not Divine, he ignores at once the creation of Scripture and indulges himself in an utter lack of logic. As a great writer has said, Pascal might have dictated one of his Provincial Letters to some Clermont artisan, and another to the Abbess of Port Royal. Could the former have been on that account less Pascalian than all the rest? Undoubtedly not! The great Newton, when he wished to hand over to the world his marvelous discoveries, might have employed some Cambridge youth to write out the fortieth, and some college servant the forty-first proposition of his immortal work THE PRINCIPIA, while he might have dictated the remaining pages to Barrow and Hailey. Should we any the less possess the discoveries of his genius, and the mathematical reasonings which lead us to refer to one and the same law all the movements of the universe? Would the whole work be any the less his? No; undoubtedly!
Man has been Gods medium of making His message known because His elected Prophets were made capable of translating Divine thoughts and words into human speech. Hence the Psalmists claim, Thy Word was in my tongue. That is the way of Bible making. All other books are made after another manner. They are man-thought and man-wrought, and belong in the category of books. The Bible is after another manner and will forever remain THE BOOK, and the whole program of its creation is suggested in the thirty-sixth chapter of Jeremiah.
But herein we have also
THE MOTIVE-TYPE OF MODERNISM
and, at that point, Prof. Kent and all his confreres come into the closest possible fellowship with Jehoiakim, the original destructive critic. Jehoiakim set the example that has now issued in a whole school of modernism.
He deliberately attempted the destruction of unwelcome truths. It was the witness against Israel and against Judah that he resented. That speech didnt suit him; hence the penknife. In what respect, will you tell me, did his procedure differ from that of the Yale professor? What difference does it make whether you employ the point of a knife to cut out a portion of the Bible, or the point of a pen to accomplish the same? Pres. Kyle never said a truer thing than when he remarked, There are circumstances in which incompleteness is falsehood. A statement may be absolutely true in its every detail as far as it goes, and yet it may be, by reason of defectiveness, as false as the father of lies can make it. Witness the great deceivers use of Scripture. Satan quoted correctly but he commenced and left off his quotations to suit himself.
There is not a one of the fundamentals of the Christian faith but receives slack treatment in The Shorter Bible. If this was a result of pure abbreviation it would not be so bad, but it is impossible to analyze this endeavor without deciding that it is the sure result of deliberation.
Take the Virgin Birth! The Shorter Bible majors on Johns conception and birth, and minors on the Masters. It goes into detail as to what was told Elizabeth, but, with a blundering shrewdness, it passes over every reference to the great fact that before they (Mary and Joseph) came together, she was found with child of the Holy Ghost (Mat 1:18), fulfilling the prophecy, Behold, a virgin shall be with child, and shall bring forth a Son, and shall call His Name Emmanuel, which being interpreted is, God with us, and by a contortion, rather than a translation, he makes Joseph the father of Jesus, disregarding alike Josephs protest of lack of paternity, and the language of Scripture which describes Joseph, and Mary the mother of Jesus.
The matchless miracles wrought by the mighty hand of God in the person of His Son are deliberately called mental and moral healing, and where miracles are of such a nature as not to yield to this treatment, he deftly omits them.
His translation of Joh 3:16, while not a clear denial of the doctrine of regeneration, is an evident instance in which the New Theologian attempts to make old words convey new meanings.
Concerning the resurrection! By a very deft but indefensible translation, he pleads the evolution theory and practically destroys the prospect of that blessed reunion of soul and body, and the consequent fellowship of all saints.
Concerning the Return of the Lord! The greater splendid passages upon that major subject of Scripture teaching, he simply omits.
The atonement receives at his hands scant favor; and if the word atonement is to be longer effectively employed it must be interpreted as the consequence of the death of a merely righteous man.
Redemption, according to the Shorter Bible is not a result of shed blood, but the simple consequence of good behavior. For instance, he takes the noble passage in II Peter where men are told they have escaped the pollutions of the world through the knowledge of the Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ and are enjoined to watch against fresh entanglements of the same, and he twists this until it reads, While you practice these virtues, you will never fall, and thus you will surely be given the right to enter the eternal Kingdom of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, a doctrine that utterly ignores the multiplied passages to the contrary; as for example, By the deeds of the Law there shall no flesh be justified in His sight; There is none righteous, no, not one; By grace are ye saved through faith; * * not of works, lest any man should boast.
But by far the most serious fault to be found in the Professors Shorter Bible is the flat denial of inspiration.
Such great passages as 1Pe 1:10-12; 2Pe 1:21; Rev 22:19; 1Co 2:13 are strangely forgotten. Is it merely a juxtaposition of verses that make our Scripture say:
For the prophecy came not in old time by the will of man: but holy men of God spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost. But there were false prophets also among the people, even as there shall be false teachers among you, who primly shall bring in damnable heresies, even denying the Lord that bought them, and bring upon themselves swift destruction. And many shall follow their pernicious ways; by reason of whom the way of truth shall be evil spoken of? (2Pe 1:21; 2Pe 2:1-2).
Jehoiakim thoroughly disdained the Divine authority of the Word. He believed what he heard was spoken by Jeremiah and what was read was written by Baruch, and his conduct with the penknife is accounted for by that fact. The principle has a present application. Wellhausen, who, more than any modernist, was the father of destructive criticism, in answer to Robertson Nichols inquiry whether the Bible could retain its authority over the minds and hearts of men in the light of modern research, answered, I do not see how it can.
The most anomalous instance of reasoning ever indulged by the modernist since he quit the monkey stage and taught himself to speak, is that illogical conclusion that while the Bible was not given of God, it is none the less Divine and ought to constitute the chief study of man!
Can you imagine such authorities as Driver of Oxford and Kirkpatrick of Cambridge, England, writing a book on The Higher Criticism that reduces the Scriptures to a level with Ades Stories of the Streets and Town and then turning about to remark that all this renders the Bible no less the Word of God, and can you think of a man of such popularity as R. F. Horton holds in Old and New World Colleges and universities, writing in one book, Verbum Dei these two sentences, The unthinking dogma of Orthodoxy that the Bible as such is the Word of God, etc. (p. 117) and then later remarking, The Bible itself is in so unique and peculiar a sense the Word of God? etc, etc. Ones heart bleeds for the present-day student-body. The average college and university carefully guards its young men and women against logical thinkers and speakers, surrounds its campus with a few preachers who are Wellhausen parrots, puts into its Y. M. C. A. secretaryships and college pastorates a few more modernist magpies, and they organize themselves into a bodyguard against the admission of any orthodox man who might bring a message from God and righteously affect the students, if once he were privileged a hearing.
In Finneys day the colleges, in consequence of the fact that they welcomed a man with a message, heard ministers steeped in a knowledge of the Scriptures, who met and more than matched the scholarly deists, turned the tide of skepticism and rescued the Church of God from its relapse and saved the colleges themselves. It is not forgotten that Finney was the very man who in Rochester, N. Y., (then as now a center for free thinking,) removed the Bible from the sacred desk and declared I will never replace it until I have proven by fair arguments in the eyes of all the world that this is the Word of God, and the great man made good.
It is little wonder that skeptics have drawn a cordon around our schools, and not one conservative, who is certain to deliver a logical message, is longer admitted. The alert minds of students would too shortly distinguish. The modernists cant afford to have their vain philosophies brought into comparison with Gospel preaching, nor their evolution theory set in the light of the sacred Scriptures, nor their Unitarian tendencies treated as they justly deserve. A few years since, the President of Princeton made a futile attempt to keep the students from hearing Billy Sunday. Who blames him? If I were the president of a modern University and wanted to mold my students into 20th century skeptics, I would do my best to guard them against virile and thoughtful men, and whenever a Prof. Kent came within call, I would turn over to him the convocation.
But I cannot end this discourse without a final remark with its elaboration, namely,
THE MENACE IN THIS MATTER IS TO THE MODERNIST
I do not read in Jeremiah 36 that any harm came to the Prophet of God or to the scribe who put into writing the inspired words, but I do read,
Then the Word of the Lord came to Jeremiah, after that the king had burned the roll, and the words which Baruch wrote at the mouth of Jeremiah, saying,
Take thee again another roll, and write in it all the former words that were in the first roll, which Jehoiakim the king of Judah hath burned.
And thou shalt say to Jehoiakim king of Judah, Thus saith the Lord; Thou hast burned this roll, saying, Why hast thou written therein, saying, The king of Babylon shall certainly come and destroy this land, and shall cause to cease from thence man and beast? Therefore thus saith the Lord of Jehoiakim king of Judah; He shall have none to sit upon the throne of David: and his dead body shall be cast out in the day to the heat, and in the night to the frost.
And I will punish him and his seed and his servants for their iniquity; and I will bring upon them, and upon the inhabitants of Jerusalem, and upon the mm of Judah, all the evil that I have pronounced against them; but they hearkened not.
Then took Jeremiah another roll, and gave it to Baruch the scribe, the son of Neriah; who wrote therein from the mouth of Jeremiah all the words of the book which Jehoiakim king of Judah had burned in the fire: and there were added besides unto them many like words (Jer 36:27-32).
This passage suggests first
The man who opposes Gods Word puts himself in peril.
He shall have none to sit upon the throne of David: and his dead body shall be cast out in the day to the heat, and in the night to the frost.
It would be an interesting study to trace the opponents of Gods Book to lifes end and find out how often they have come to judgment. You will remember that the Ark of the covenant contained three types of the Word; Aarons rod that budded, a type of the power of the Word to bring life out of death; the pot of manna, type of Gods bread, the Book; and the tables of the Law, Gods will written by His own finger. The cover of this Ark was of gold and made the mercy seat, over which the effulgence of His face shone. Woe to the sacrilegious hand that attempted to touch any one of these types! Death was his portion.
I doubt if the sacrilegious fare any better in modern times. Goethe was a great poet, but Goethe was an opponent of Gods Word and when the lights of time were going out, he not only cried to people to open the shutters and, with a shiver, complained of the increasing darkness, but confessed, I have scarcely tasted twenty-four hours of happiness during my long and unhappy life.
Mirabeau, the French infidel, pled for an opiate to deaden conscience and drive away the haunting visions of coming doom.
Go back, if you will, into history and ask after the closing hours of a Semler, Ernesti, Griesbach; of a Tyndale, Hobbs and Bolingbroke, or a Hume, Paine, a Voltaire! Not one of them passed with pleasure into the great beyond, but met the last enemy, death, with dread, and you may include those greater modernists, Kuenen and Wellhausen even those so-called Christian critics like Kirkpatrick and Driver; yea, even our own matchless modernist and American, William R. Harper, and no such note of triumph ever broke from their lips as Paul voices when he was passing out, or as Moody uttered when, for him, God called and the Heavens opened.
I note in the last place that this message from God was not obliterated but increased. There were added besides unto them many like words (Jer 36:32).
The message of Inspiration survives all opposition. It will forever remain so. For full twenty centuries infidelity has raged. It has employed the fagot; it has used the sword; it now arrays itself in the cap and gown of scholarship and approaches its task in the name of science. But the same Scriptures that survived the fagot and the sword, smile in their conscious strength and know that once more Satans scheme will meet defeat and every one of the sixty-six Books will emerge from the cloud of dust raised about them and every one of the forty writers will come as clear from this German barrage of theological smoke as the three Hebrew Children came from the kings furnace.
In conclusion let me give you the experience of a man who went into this infidelity and came out of it. J. F. Behrends was the honor graduate of his class! He became easily one of the most famed of American pulpit skeptics. His learning and eloquence combined to prove to the unthinking his new theological conclusions, and for a time he was paraded as a representative of whom the critics were most proud. But as a thoughtful man, he worked his way through it all and walked out of the intellectual fog bank into Gods bright day again. Here is his record of it, taken from his volume, The Old Testament under Fire.
I have been in the crushing coils of this critical anaconda, and know what the fight for life means. Less than twenty years ago, the revolutionary criticism made its appearance in our higher institutions of learning. It was unknown in my seminary days. It is all the rage now. Theology has been thrust into the background, and the critic is in the saddle. He will not stay there long, for already the steed is becoming unmanageable. And when the new criticism first appeared, I ignored it. I did not believe the enemy ever would come within rifle range, and so I was not disturbed. But that which at first was only a rustle in the top leaves of the trees, swept downward and forward and with increasing velocity. I kept my feet, and waited. At last, eight years ago, I could stand it no longer and I determined that the issue must be fairly and squarely met. I girded myself for the task. I took down my neglected Hebrew Bible, and plodded through its every line; once, and again, and yet againthe Pentateuch a good many times. Meanwhile, the agony grew apace. Many a day was spent in restless pacing in my study; many a night was without any sleep, except the sleep of exhaustion. It seemed to me as if the Old Testament were slipping away from me. I dreaded to open it, and I dared not shut it. The darkness seemed growing denser. On I pressed, and stumbled, sometimes nearly losing my footing. The eddy became a maelstrom, whose hissing and whirling waters threatened to suck me into their cavernous depths. None knew my agony, for I bore it alone. And Sunday after Sunday I went into my pulpit, to preach the Gospel, while my heart was ready to break. I had lost my childhood faith, and there was none to take its place. The language of the first half of the twenty-second Psalm is none too strong to describe the agony of those years.
But there came a time when I cried with the Psalmist, Thou hast heard me. God drew me out of the engulfing waters, out of the pit and the miry clay, set my feet upon the rock, established my goings, and put a new song into my mouth. Be it eddy or whirlpool, I am out of both; and my feet are planted where the waters hiss and swirl, without so much as dashing their spray upon my footing. I have unlearned much. There are many things about which I have come to be indifferent, which I once regarded as essential. I have no words to waste upon questions of infallibility and inerrancy. Chronologies and genealogical tables have ceased to trouble me. Alleged discrepancies are no more to me than a few drops of rain on a radiant June day. The sun shines, and is regnant, for all that. The dispute, whether inspiration is verbal or neotic, mechanical or dynamic, partial or plenary, has lost its interest for me. Two things I know; that the Bible is Gods Book, and that it is true. I smile when I hear men disputing about the phrases, The Bible is the Word of God and The Word of God is in the Bible. I believe both as I believe body and soul constitute a man. The message of God is the eternal soul; the history is the body in which that soul lives, and moves, and through which that soul acts. The message is infallible and eternal. The history is true. That is my confession.
Fuente: The Bible of the Expositor and the Evangelist by Riley
CRITICAL AND EXEGETICAL NOTES.1. Chronology of the Chapter.Fourth of Jehoiakim. See Note on chap. 25.
2. National Affairs.Jehoiakim was at that time vassal of Pharoah-Necho; but Nebuchadnezzar invaded Jerusalem, carried off a few prisoners and some of the Temple treasures (Dan. 1:1-2), and compelled Jehoiakim to become his vassal, thus subjugating the nation to Babylon instead of Egypt. This was a sore pang and degradation to Jehoiakim; and when Jeremiah prophesied (Jer. 36:29) that the king of Babylon would again come to destroy the land and make man and beast cease from it, the kings wrath became ungovernable.
In this critical condition of the nation, invasion begun, conquest sure, and captivity imminent, it became urgent that Jeremiah should collect all his propheciescovering a period of twenty-three yearsinto a book (Jer. 36:2), for their preservation as a witness of Gods pleadings and warnings with the nation. This writing was completed in the ninth month: our December.
For Contemporaneous Scriptures and Contemporaneous History, vide Notes in loc. on chap. 25.
3. Manners and Customs.Jer. 36:2. Take thee a roll of a book and write. It was a roll of parchment skins. Jer. 36:9. Proclaimed a fast. The ordinary fast was in the seventh month (Lev. 16:29); but this was the ninth month (Jer. 36:9), and was therefore an extra and special fast. Keil thinks this fast was to commemorate by a national humiliation the capture of Jerusalem by the Chaldeans the previous year. Jer. 36:22. The king sat in the winter-house. A separate portion of the palace specially used in the colder season (Amo. 3:15). A fire on the hearth, lit. the fire-pan burning before him; in the middle of the floor was a brazier in which the firecharcoalburned.
4. Personal Allusions.Jer. 36:4. Baruch (see on chap. Jer. 32:12): Jer. 36:10. Gemariah: not the Gemariah of chap. Jer. 29:3, but brother of Ahikam (Jer. 26:24). Jer. 36:11. Michaiah: grandson of Shaphan, of whom see 2Ki. 22:3. Jer. 36:12. Elishama: a court prince, perhaps the same as mentioned Jer. 41:1, 2Ki. 25:25. Elnathan: already had acted as an evil agent of the kings (Jer. 26:22-23). Hananiah, the false prophet (Jer. 28:10-17). Jer. 36:14. Jehudi: doubtless of a good family from his ancestry being so carefully recited; but his office is unknown. Jer. 36:26. Jerahmeel the son of Hammelech; query, the son of the king? But Jehoiakim had then no grown-up son. Yet he might have been one of royal blood. Seraiah, &c., courtiers or princes.
5. Literary Criticisms.Jer. 36:7. It may be they will present their supplication before the Lord. The words mean to allow a petition to be laid at the feet of a superior: lit. it may be their supplication will fall before Jehovah. Jer. 36:18. He pronounced all these words, &c. , definitelyhe recited from his mouth; not, read from a book: oral dictation. Ink: the only occurrence of the word. , ink, may come from , to be black. Jer. 36:23. Cut it with the penknife; i.e., the scribes knife with which he trimmed his reed for writing.
Note.Chapters 3644 form a HISTORIC RECORD OF EVENTS (gathered up into a volume by express Divine command), ranging from the fourth year of Jehoiakim to the close of Jeremiahs ministry. These records divide themselves thus
A. Chaps. 3638. Events preceding the Chaldean capture of Jerusalem.
B. Chapters 3944. Events succeeding that capture.
SUBJECT OF CHAPTER 36Jeremiahs prophecies
1.
Committed to writing by Baruch (Jer. 36:1-8).
2.
Rehearsed to all the people (Jer. 36:9-10).
3.
Read to the princes (Jer. 36:11-19).
4.
Read in part to Jehoiakim, then burnt by the king (Jer. 36:20-26).
5.
Jehoiakims heavy denunciation (Jer. 36:27-31).
6.
The second rollprophecies rewritten (Jer. 36:32)
HOMILIES AND OUTLINES ON CHAPTER 36
Jer. 36:2-3. Theme: REVELATION IN WRITING. Take thee a roll of a book, and write therein all the words that I have spoken unto thee against Israel, and against Judah, and against all the nations, from the day I spake unto thee, from the days of Josiah, even unto this day. It may be that the house of Judah will hear all the evil that I purpose to do unto them; that they may return every man from his evil way, that I may forgive their iniquity and their sin.
Ours is a documentary religion; and it is a great advantage to have the principles of our faith in a defined and a written form. The prophets pen succeeded his breath.
An abstract of Jeremiahs preaching for twenty-three years was thus recorded. Baruch was to read it. It excited a great sensation. The princes conveyed it to the king: it was read in his presence: he took his penknife, cut it in pieces, cast it in the fire. But another was written with this awful addition: Say to Jehoiakim (Jer. 36:30-31).
Upon this account remark
I. The Divine authority of the book. This word came to Jeremiah.
1. It bears evident marks and indications of having come from God. Ours is a documentary religionmore sure than miraclea more sure word of prophecy. If ye believe not Moses, &c.
2. The time and the manner in which this word comes to a people. It is distinctly marked by God Himself as a great crisis in their religious history. God dates from this event. Good men date from it too.
3. The Book can never leave us as it finds us.
II. The gracious design of the Scriptures. To bring us to faith, to repentance and reconciliation to God (Jer. 36:3-7); not to condemn, but to save. It is to show us our danger and our refuge. Full of Christ.
III. The settled hostility it excites (Jer. 36:22-23). Men of corrupt minds love not the truth. Popery hates it. Many false Protestants dislike it too. They who do not take the penknife to destroy it, employ their pens to pervert and extinguish it.
IV. The righteous retribution its rejection incurs (Jer. 36:29-31). The Gospel has a condemnation of its own as well as the law.
Comp. also Homily on chap. Jer. 30:2.
Jer. 36:2. Theme: LITERA SORIPTA MANET. The object of the writing was not alone that the word written might remain, but also to collect all the single lightning strokes into one grand prophetic tempest.
The written word was of special use
i. To contemporaries. For it rendered possible(1.) Continued study; (2.) quiet contemplation; (3.) careful comparison.
ii. To posterity. (1.) The mouth speaks only to those present; the pen to the absent. (2.) The mouth speaks only to present hours and times; the pen to centuries future.
Comp. Exo. 34:27; Deu. 10:4-5; Deu. 17:18; Isa. 30:8; Hab. 2:2.
Naegelsbach and Cramer.
Also: The blessings of the written word.
i. That which it has in common with the spoken word. Preparation of the heart for the reception of salvation (ver.).
ii. That which it has in distinction from the spoken word. (a) It is present for every one; (b) it is present at every time and every place; (c) it is present in all its parts (for comparison).
Naegelsbach.
See Addenda: REVELATION IN WRITING.
Jer. 36:3. Theme:IT MAY BE. It may be that the house of Judah will hear all the evil which I purpose to do unto them; that they may return every man from his evil way; that I may forgive their iniquity and their sin.
Jeremiahs ministry may be regarded as typical of Gods dealings with man in all ages. It may be.
I. This word shows us the heart of God. Words are the servants of things. Language is imperfect, but it is the chief interpreter of thought. What has been said of man, may be said, with reverence, of God: Out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaketh. When God says, It may be, we must not imagine that there is anything like doubt or ignorance with Him. It is said that He speaks as a man to men. How wonderful that He should thus condescend to our weakness and necessities! He not only employs human agents, but human speech, to reveal His will to us. Difficulties may be easily raised as to the form of speech here, but there can be no question as to its spirit. The words breathe love, and not hate. God is indeed displeased because of sin, but He longs to show mercy to the sinner. His heart yearns over His rebellious children, as the father over his prodigal son. Judgment is His strange work. Mercy is His delight. He welcomes the penitent. He blesses the obedient. All His counsels and warnings, His promises and threatenings, are for good. Mark the words of Moses (Deu. 5:29-33; Deu. 32:44-47); of the prophets (Isa. 1:18-20; Jer. 8:7-11; Eze. 12:3; Eze. 18:31; Hos. 11:1-8); of Jesus Christ (Joh. 3:16-17; Luk. 19:10; Luk. 19:41-42). And so it is still. What John said of his Gospel may be said of the whole Bible, and indeed of all Gods dealings with us in graceThese are written, that ye might believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that believing ye might have life through His name.
II. This word reveals the grand possibilities of human life. Looking on waste moorland, we may say, this will soon be reclaimed. That soldier standing in the ranks, beside thousands more, may yet rise to high command. That speaker, who has failed in his first effort, may yet lead the House of Commons. That child, over whose cradle his mother bends in fond anxiety, may yet hold a foremost place among men. He who was the joy of his mothers youth may be the pride and the stay of her old age. These and such like possibilities lie hid in the future. As yet, all is uncertain; we can only say, It may be. But can there be such uncertainty with God? No. To His infinite mind, all the possibilities of time, and space, and circumstance, are not matters of doubt, but of certainty (Isa. 46:9-11). Yet here, as often, He speaks as if it were otherwise. For our sakes He puts aside the must be of the Divine and the absolute, for the may be of the human and the contingent. His dealings with Israel are spoken of as an experiment. The gracious purpose is plain, but the result is hidden. It depends upon causes not yet in full operation. It will be manifested in due time, in the free actings and choices of men. So it is with the ministry of grace in every age. Men are put upon trial (Deu. 8:2; Luk. 2:34). Mark the grand possibilities.
1. Earnest attention (Jer. 36:3). This is absolutely necessary. Gods Word is truth. If He threatens, it is because there is just cause. His laws must be upheld. Wrath must come to the uttermost on the impenitent. If men considered this, surely it would awaken a holy fear of Gods judgments. The tale of what God purposes to do to the sinner may well make the ears of every one that beareth it to tingle (1Sa. 3:11). It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God.
2. Penitential prayer (Jer. 36:7). It may be they will present their supplication before the Lord, and will return every one from his evil way. God cannot change. It is the sinner who must retrace his steps. He has forsaken God, and turned to his own evil way, and he is bound and besought to return. Prayer is the first step to a true amendment of life. It is when we look upon God as He has revealed Himself in Christ that we are melted to penitence, and that the cry of hope rises from our hearts (Isa. 27:4-5; Isa. 55:6-7).
3. Moral reconciliation. The hindrances to peace are not with God, but with us. Mark the touching words, that I may forgive. God pities the sinner, but He cannot deal with him, in the way of absolution, till he has come to himself and is in earnest about salvation. God is willing to give, but the sinner may not have the heart to receive. On the other hand, when there is a real turning from sin unto God, how quick is the response! how complete and joyous the reconciliation! (Luk. 15:20-24; Joh. 1:5-9.)
III. This word holds out encouragement to all true workers for Christ.
Hope is the spring of all activity. What we deem impossible we do not attempt. Reason forbids. But what we know to be both possible and good, we can strive for with all our strength. Duty is ours, results belong to God. For three-and-twenty years Jeremiah had laboured in Judah. His work seemed in vain. But he must not cease. The mercy of God is great. Another effort must be made. New methods must be tried. The Word must be written, and brought to bear in all its force upon the people, the princes, and the king. It may be they will hear. The command given to Jeremiah and Baruch, is just the same in substance as that which was afterwards given to the apostles and ministers of Jesus Christ (Mat. 28:19-20; Act. 5:20; Act. 18:9-10). It may be, implies faith, and love, and hope. It holds out encouragement to prayer (David, 2Sa. 12:22); to holy endeavour (Paul, Php. 3:8-14; Php. 4:13); to benevolent and missionary enterprise (Ecc. 9:1-6; Rom. 1:16). In all that is for good, friend helping friend, parents training their children, Christian men and women labouring for the advancement of the Gospel, we may say as Jonathan did to his armour-bearer, when summoning him to a deed of high courage and daring, Come: it may be the Lord will work for us (1Sa. 14:6). Nay, we may do more. We may say to ourselves, as Haggai to Zerubbabel, and to Joshua, and to all the people of the land, Be strong and work, for I am with you, saith the Lord of Hosts (Hag. 2:4-5). Our labour shall not be in vain in the Lord. For the humblest worker, as well as for the great Master Himself, the word is true, He shall see of the travail of his soul and shall be satisfied.Rev. W. Forsyth, from Homiletic Quarterly.
Jer. 36:7. Theme: AN OPEN DOOR OF HOPE. It may be they will present their supplication before the Lord, and will return every one from his evil way; for great is the anger and the fury that the Lord hath pronounced against this people.
I. Menacing doom.
1. Definite in its direction. Against this people.
2. Terrible in its character. Great is the anger and the fury.
3. Ominous as to its origin. That the Lord hath pronounced.
4. Positive as to its announcement. Hath prouounced.
II. Possible escape. It may be.
1. Doom tarries till all conditional exigences are expended. God holds back the stroke till every possibility of averting it is exhausted. He is slow to anger.
2. Sinners have the power of arresting their own doom. Though it has been pronounced against them. As Nineveh.
3. Threatenings of God are designed to act as appeals to men to avert them. They are stern voices of love. His menaces are severe, and will eventually be fulfilled if not averted; but He makes them severe in order to arouse us to seek reconciliation and escape.
III. Conditions of deliverance.
1. Not hard to comply with.
2. Not beyond the absolute necessities of the case. They are
(a) Penitential prayer. Present their supplication.
(b) Individual reformation. Return every one from his evil way.
Note.This was urged upon the fasting day (Jer. 36:6). So that fasting was not enough of itself (see Isa. 58:3; Isa. 58:5; Zec. 5:5; Zec. 5:7). And this appeal followed the reading of the roll (Jer. 36:6). Thus reading Scripture and self-mortification should be added to penitence and reformation. All which, in this Gospel age, become summed up in(a) Search the Scriptures, for they testify of Me; (b) Take up thy cross daily and follow Me; (c) Repentance towards God; and (d) Laying aside every weight and the sin that doth so easily beset us, let us run, looking unto Jesus!
Jer. 36:11; Jer. 36:13. Theme: THE HEARER BECOMES A PREACHER. When Michaiah had heard out of the book all the words of the Lord, he went down to the kings house and declared unto [the princes] all the words he had heard, &c.
I. A hearers responsibility. To carry tidings to absent ones. Let him that heareth say, Come. If the Lords words are good for him, they are also good for others.
II. A hearers opportunity. He can reach an audience from which the preacher is excluded. Family circles, official circles [as in this case] may be brought to hear Gods truth by one person reciting what he has heard.
III. A hearers prompt anxiety. What he heard was urgent, was ominous. Others were entailed in the messages of Gods Word. It was not right for him to be silent. The doom or salvation of others depended on his telling what he had heard. Forthwith he went, and faithfully he recited the facts of warning and counsel from God.
(1.) He became thus a herald from God to his friends.
(2.) He opened the way for Jeremiahs roll to be read in their hearing (Jer. 36:15).
(3.) He brought them under very solemn convictions (Jer. 36:16.)
(4.) He won for Gods servants influential friends, who protected them from the anger of the king (Jer. 36:19; Jer. 36:25).
Can we whose souls are lighted
With wisdom from on high,
Can we, to men benighted,
The light of life deny?
Jer. 36:20. Theme: READING GODS WORD TO A KING. These princes showed a gracious mind toward Baruch and Jeremiah; for they did not force Baruch into the angry kings presence.
Yet they showed also a timid and half-hearted sympathy; for if they thought the words of the Lord urgent and important, why did they not boldly go in to the king and plead with him to heed the message?
Had they been true patriots, and loyal to Gods truth, they would have acted a more emphatic part than they did.
But they secured this: the king heard Gods word.
I. An involuntary hearer. They seem all together to have gone in and recited what they had heard (Jer. 36:20). Jehoiakim was thus taken by surprisestormed in his unsuspecting ease. Often God sends messages to and against us
1. Without our wishing to have them.
2. Without our power to prevent them.
3. In a manner wholly unexpected.
II. An inquisitive hearer. The fragmentary recital of the words of the Lord by the princes excited him to desire to hear from the roll itself. So (Jer. 36:21)
1. There may be an inquisitiveness born of doubt. Jehoiakim may have questioned whether they repeated the words correctly.
2. Or an inquisitiveness prompted by anxiety. He may have felt disturbed by what he heard, and wished to know the matter more fully.
3. Or an inquisitiveness quickened by hope. Possibly these princes stated only the dark side of things: if he heard more it might be less menacing.
4. Or an inquisitiveness actuated by scorn. So far from his being alarmed by the eager words of the princes, he was quite ready to hear morelet him hear it all: it mattered not to him!
III. An infuriated hearer. There burned before him a fire (Jer. 36:22); and it but represented the fury which burned within him.
1. He burned with mad impatience. Stopped the reading: could not sit out the reading: heard only three or four leaves (Jer. 36:23).
2. He burned with impotent rage. Became violent: paid no heed to the intercessions (Jer. 36:25) of the three princes: wanted Jeremiah apprehended (Jer. 36:26): issued a mandate then and there to Baruch that the prophet should be taken.
3. He burned with silly revenge. He would destroy the roll; so cut it with a penknifeventing his malice on the innocent parchment! and then cast the roll into the fire, gratifying his ridiculous animosity by watching its consumption! (Jer. 36:23.)
See Addenda: INFURIATED HEARERS. Note
1. Fires can consume books, but they cannot consume truths!
2. Gods enemies who make fires may one day feed them! The fire shall try every mans work. He will burn up the chaff with unquenchable fire. See Addenda: BURNING BIBLES.
Jer. 36:23. Theme: THE RECKLESS PENKNIFE. When Jehudi had read three or four leaves, he cut it with a penknife.
We look in upon a room in Jerusalem. Two men there: Jeremiah, walking the floor, agitated, in the spirit of prophecy. Baruch, writing out the scathing words of the Almighty against the city.
It is winter. Jehoiakim sits in winter house. Silence among his lords, princes, while the parchment is read. Every eye is fixed; king frowns, cheeks burn; foot comes down with thundering indignation; seizes penknife, and lashes it into the parchments.
Was the book destroyed? Did the king escape? In a little while Jehoiakims dead body is hurled forth to blacken in the sun, buried with the burial of an ass, while Baruch again writes the terrible prophecy which Jeremiah anew dictates.
It would take more penknives than cutler ever sharpened to hew into permanent destruction the Word of God. Yet that Oriental scene has been often repeated: there are thousands of Jehoiakims who cut the Word of God with their penknives.
I. The first to be mentioned is the man who receives a part of the Bible, but cuts out portions and rejects them.
But the genuineness of the entire Bible is established, and there may be no cutting out of books against which cavillers rail. If any part of the Old Testament had been uninspired, Christ would have said, Search the Scriptures, except the book ofJonah or Esther. And with all the Christian world watching, and our enemies also, you might as well attempt to insert an entire canto in Miltons Paradise Lost as a fresh page into the New Testament.
A man dies; people assemble to hear the Will read. One interrupts: I reject that passage. But they must take the will as a whole, or not at all.
Remove one orb from this constellation of Bible books that revolve in splendour about Jesus, the central Sun, and heaven itself would weep at the catastrophe.
II. He who runs his knife through the Bible from Genesis to Revelation and rejects everything.
The hostility in the winter house exists yet. Enemies of this Book have tried to marshal on their side chemists laboratory, astronomers telescope, geologists pry, mineralogists hammer, &c. With the black hulk of their priestcraft they have tried to run down this Gospel ship speeding on errands of salvation.
Men strike their knife through this Book because they say that
1. The light of nature is sufficient. Have the fire-worshippers of India, the Borneoian cannibal, &c., found it so? The pagodas of superstition, the infanticides of the Ganges, the gory wheels of Juggernaut, declare it is not sufficient. A star is beautiful, but it pours no light on the midnight of a sinful soul. What must I do to be saved? Sweltering nations have knelt at the foot of the Himalayan mountains for ages asking the question; but the mountain made no response. The cry has gone round the world, but the stars were dumb, and the Alps were silent, &c.
2. That the Book is cruel and indecent. But show one man made cruel or obscene by the Bible. Thousands have been lifted by it out of their sin.
3. That it is so full of unexplained mysteries. What! will you believe only in what can be explained? Gravitation? Your finger nails; how do they grow? I would know that the heights and depths of Gods truth were not very great if I could, with my finite mind, read everything.
4. An infidel strikes his penknife through the Bible because, he says, if it were Gods Book, the whole world would have it. He pleads that if God had anything to say to the world, He could not say it to only a small part of the race. But how is it God gives oranges and bananas to only a small part of our race? There are millions who have never seen an orange or a banana! If all the human race had the same climate, harvests, health, advantages, then, by analogy, you might argue God should give the Bible, if at all, to the whole world.
5. Objectors cut the Bible because they urge that other books have in them great value and beauty. True: Confucius taught kindness to enemies; the Shaster has great affluence of beauty; the Veda of the Brahmins has ennobling sentiments; but what is proved thereby?that after searching all lands, and ages, and literature, there has been found but a portion of the wisdom and beauty which Gods Book contains! Let Voltaire come on with his acute philosophy, and Hume with his scholarship, and Gibbon with his one-sided statements, and Hobbes with his subtlety; and the band of mountain shepherds and Galilee fishermen will beat all back with the cry of Victory, through our Lord Jesus Christ!
III. No better proof of the Divinity of this Book can be desired than that it has withstood this mighty and continuous attack, and come down to us without a chapter effaced, a miracle injured, or a promise scarred.
No other book has passed through such hostility. Yet this Book to-day is foremost. In Philosophy, it is honoured above the works of Descartes, Bacon, Aristotle, and Socrates. In History, it wins more respect than Herodotus, Thucydides, and Xenophon. In Poetry, it outshines the Iliad and Odessey, the Inferno and Paradise Lost. It has been published in more than two hundred languages; the earth quakes with the quick revolutions of its printing-press.
One verse of this Book above the throne of tyranny, and it shall fall; above the temples of superstition, and they shall crumble; above the vilderness, and it shall bloom as the Garden of the Lord. Thou Prince of Books, we hail thee to thy coronation! the wheeling earth thy chariot! the bending sky thy triumphal arch! the great heavens thy star-studded banner!
1. We have, then, many reasons for believing the Bible.
2. Raise the Book higher in your estimation.
3. Take it to your heart, your house. Though you seem to get along very well without the Bible in your prosperity, there will come a time when your only consolation will be this blessed Gospel.
A blind girl had been in the habit of reading the Bible with raised letters; by an accident her fingers lost their sensitiveness. In her sorrow, she raised the Book to her lips, to kiss it a farewell. As she did so she felt the letters with her lipsThe Gospel according to Mark. Thank God! she exclaimed, I can read my Bible with my lips!
Oh, in our last hour, when the world goes from our grasp, press this precious Gospel to our lips, that, in the dying kiss, we may taste its sweet promises.De Witt Talmage, 1870.
Jer. 36:23. Theme: LABORIOUS SERVICE WASTED. All the roll was consumed in the fire.
I. A vast and toilsome task.
i. It occupied a considerable time in preparation: doubtless the nine months, at least, of the fifth year of Jehoiakim (Jer. 36:9).
ii. And it was undertaken at Gods command (Jer. 36:2).
iii. It had an urgent and solemn aim in view (Jer. 36:3).
iv. It was performed with anxious fidelity (Jer. 36:4).
v. It occupied the energies of two devoted and gifted servants of Jehovah (Jer. 36:4; Jer. 36:17-18).
II. Destroyed in a moments caprice.
i. Within a few hours of its completion. Its reading before the people, princes, and king was all on the same day; and then it was destroyed.
ii. Utterly destroying the entire product of devoted toil. Not a vestige, not a leaf remaining.
iii. Apparently rendering all the labour fruitless. There on the fire smouldered the ashes of destroyed toil. Strength spent for nought.
III. Yet effecting its full Divine purpose.
i. Mighty consequences result from moments. A lightning flash lasts but a second, yet it fells a forest, shivers a rock, blasts an edifice, scorches a life into instant death.
This roll was read, and though, but once heard, it yet conveyed its message, and wrought its different results: on the people (Jer. 36:7), on the princes (Jer. 36:16), on the king (Jer. 36:23).
ii. Mans wanton act of destruction is included in Gods arrangements. He intended it as a test for the king, and it revealed to both people and princes (who had been solemnised by the reading) that the king was hopelessly defiant and merited the destruction so soon to follow.
iii. Hence godly work should be done and left with God. We may well be satisfied with the consciousness that we have carried out His bidding. If foes seem to render our obedience useless, that is Gods matter, not ours. Sometimes best results follow the apparent ruin of our labours. It makes the way clear for God to follow on with His judgments (Jer. 36:31).
IV. Ruined work should inspire to renewed service. Then took Jeremiah another roll (Jer. 36:32).
i. Go over again the path of obedience, even though with bleeding feet.
ii. Lose not faith in God though the toil seem monotonous.
iii. The recompleted service shall have something added. Many like words. For all work done over again becomes both enlarged and improved; and its disciplinary effect upon the worker may prove not the least of the advantageous results of the reattempted service. For the heart will learn to be patient in Divine employ, and submissive to the Providential conditions (of failure or success) amid which work for Him is fulfilled.
Paul said, I have learned both how to be abased and how to abound.
Jer. 36:24. Theme: HARDENED HEARERS. Yet they were not afraid, nor rent their garments; that is, the king and his attendant princes. Jeremiah records this with amazement, sorrow, and alarm.
I. Contrast the solemn fear of Josiah, this kings father (2Ki. 22:11; 2Ki. 22:19). The difference in their acts and their end. Jehoiakims guilt was aggravated by reason of his good fathers example.
II. Ponder the stolidity which habitual disobedience produces. This defiant effrontery in the king was the climax of long rejection of Gods messages. This immovable indifference in his princes was the result of the kings example and influence.
III. Beware of hearing Gods messages with heedlessness.
1. Begins with inattention.
2. Progresses into wilful disobedience.
3. Culminates in hardened indifference.
IV. Receive Gods word with a chastened seriousness of spirit.
1. Warnings from God should produce alarm. Afraid.
2. Convictions of sin should lead to repentance. Rend garments.
3. Divine threatenings should urge to seek hiding in Christ.
Note.The guilt of indifference. It shows(a.) contempt of God; (b.) recklessness of soul; (c.) hardness of heart.
Jer. 36:31. Theme: THREATENED PUNISHMENT. And I will punish him, and his seed, and his servants, for their iniquity. A current sentiment that God is too merciful to punish. This shows
i. A misconception of the character of God.
ii. A wilful ignorance of the facts of history.
iii. Forgetfulness of the suffering condition of this present evil world. For, was not Adam driven from Eden? Did not the deluge sweep the ungodly from the earth? Were not Sodom and Gomorrah overthrown? Has God never sent famine, pestilence, &c., to punish the sins of the people? Has He not so constituted the human mind as that transgression entails misery? No error could be more irrational and unscriptural. Yet it is
I. Pleaded that punishment is inconsistent with mercy. Because God is love and merciful, He cannot and will not punish. But1. Punishment, instead of being destructive of mercy, is itself merciful. To let transgressors go would foster evil and spread ruin.
2. Hence God could not be merciful did He not punish.
II. Yet no sin in human history has been committed with impunity.
1. Every transgression and disobedience has received or will receive a just recompense of reward.
2. How then, if sinners must be punished, can they be pardoned and saved? Christ was wounded for our transgressions.
3. Had the saved been saved without their sins being borne by their Surety, law in that case had been ignored, and Justice slain on the altar of Mercy.
III. Since justice and mercy are alike attributes of God, He can never be other than both just and merciful.
1. In the economy of redemption they exist in friendly alliance.
2. They are never separated either in the Divine nature or the Divine government.
IV. In all Gods judgments on rebellious Israel there were both justice and mercy. Justice towards them that fell, mercy towards those spared. Behold the goodness and severity of God, &c.
V. However obscured, still mercy always tempers justice in Gods administrations. Difficult to discern mercy in the deluge; yet it arrested aboundings of iniquity and acted beneficially on the new world.
In some cases mercy is more conspicuous than justice. Yet Heaven is not all mercy unmixed with justice: in the redeemed we see the mercy of God; but in the Redeemer, with His scars, we see the justice. And Hell is not all justice unmixed with mercy: in the suffering there we see the justice of God, but in the effect of their doom on others (and other worlds) we may see the mercy.
VI. The conduct of some transgressors leads to justice being allowed to take its course untempered by mercy. E.g., the fallen angels. So with impenitent and unbelieving men. Yet while Mercy does not intervene with such, it is merciful to others that such should be punished; as it is merciful now to society to banish great criminals from their midst.
In Gods dealings with our fallen world, grace reigns, through righteousness, in relation to all who believe; whereas justice reigns in harmony with mercy, in reference to those who neglect the great salvation.Rev. D. Pledge, Walks with Jeremiah.
Jer. 36:32. Theme: ANOTHER ROLL, WITH ADDED WORDS.
I. Gods judgments against sin.
II. Mans attempt to evade them.
III. How Divine condemnations reappear.
IV. How they reappear with additions.Rev. John Farren.
ADDENDA TO CHAP. 36: ILLUSTRATIONS AND SUGGESTIVE EXTRACTS
REVELATION IN WRITING. This is the first recorded instance of the formation of a Canonical Book, and of the special purpose of its formation. The Book now, as often afterwards, was to be the death-blow of the old regal, aristocratic, sacerdotal exclusiveness, as represented in Jehoiakim. The Scribe, now first rising into importance in the form of Baruch, to supply the defects of the living Prophet, was as the printing-press, in far later ages, supplying the defects of both Prophet and Scribe, and handing on the word of truth, which else might irretrievably have perished.Stanley, Jewish Church, ii. 456.
The British and Foreign Bible Society have during the last fifty years spread, mainly among English readers, about fifty million copies of Gods Word; and from their press six copies are now issued every minute of the day (of ten hours), or 3600 daily; and this at a price enabling the poorest to possess a Bible.
And the Scriptures have been circulated now in almost every tongue and dialect under heaven, and are being circulated in every country.
Within this ample volume lies
The mystery of mysteries:
Happiest they of human race
To whom their God has given grace
To read, to fear, to hope, to pray,
To lift the latch and force the way;
And better had they neer been born,
That read to doubt, or read to scorn.
Scott.
INFURIATED HEARERS. Vespasian is said to have been patientissimus veri (Quintilian), very patient of truth; so was the good Josiah. But Jehoiakim was more like Tiberius, that tiger who tore with his teeth what displeased him; or like Vitellius the tyrant, of whom Tacitus saith that his ears were of that temper that he could hear no counsel, though never so profitable, unless it were pleasant, and did suit with his humours (Lib. 3: Hist.)Trapp.
BURNING BIBLES. See article in Secular Annotations on Scripture Texts, Second Series, by Francis Jacox, pp. 180189, on Baruchs Burnt Book.
Jehoiakim is the first we read of that ever offered to burn the Bible. Antiochus, indeed, did the like afterwards, and Diocletian the tyrant, and later the Pope. A bad confederacy!
Dean Stanley, in his Jewish Church, vol. ii. pp. 455, 456, says, Three or four columns exhausted the royal patience. He seized a knife, such as Eastern scribes wear for the sake of erasures, cut the parchment into strips, and threw it into the brazier till it was burnt to ashes. Those who had heard from their fathers of the effect produced on Josiah by the recital of the warnings of Deuteronomy might well be startled at the contrast. None of those well-known signs of astonishment and grief were seen; neither king nor attendants rent their clothes. It was an outrage long remembered. Baruch, in his hiding-places, was overwhelmed (Jer. 36:15) with despair at this failure of his mission. But Jeremiah had now ceased to waver. He bade his timid disciple take up the pen, and record once more the terrible message. But the Divine Oracle could not be destroyed in the destruction of its outward framework. It was the new form of the vision of the bush burning, but not consumed: a sacred book, the form in which Divine truths were now first beginning to be known, burnt as sacred books have been burnt again and again, in the persecutions of the fourth or of the sixteenth century, yet multiplied by that very cause; springing from the flames to do their work, living in the voice and life of men, even when their outward letter seemed to be lost.
Fuente: The Preacher’s Complete Homiletical Commentary Edited by Joseph S. Exell
I. The commandment received (Jer. 36:1-3)
Jeremiah was commanded by the Lord to take a roll of a book (Jer. 36:2). The writing substance here is no doubt papyrus. Several pieces were stitched together and attached to a roller of wood at one or both ends. The writing was arranged in columns parallel to the rollers, so that as the scroll was gradually unrolled from one end to the other, the successive columns could be read. Upon this scroll Jeremiah is commanded to record all the words which he has spoken (Jer. 36:2). Some have suggested that Jeremiah had fragmentary written records which he used in compiling the first edition of his book, While this is not impossible it seems more likely that the prophet relied upon his memory, guided and aided, of course, by the Holy Spirit. At any rate the book was to contain excerpts from his twenty-three year ministry.
Gods purpose for issuing the command to commit the divine word to writing is clearly outlined in Jer. 36:3. Three goals are in view: (1) that they will hear the word, not in a physical sense, but in a spiritual sense i.e., in the sense of observing, heeding, taking it to heart; (2) that by hearing the word they might thereby be converted; and (3) that God might, in view of their conversion, be able to forgive their iniquity and sin. Perhaps the recent invasion of the area by Nebuchadnezzar and the capture of Jerusalem would make the people more receptive to the threats of destruction by the enemy from the north. At any rate by ordering His prophet to produce a copy of the inspired word, God was endeavoring once again to lead His people to repentance. One has to ask with Isaiah, What could have been done more? (Isa. 5:4).
2. The commandment executed (Jer. 36:4)
Jeremiah complied with the commandment of the Lord by securing Baruch the son of Neriah to be his scribe. Why did not Jeremiah himself pen the words? It is not necessary to conclude that Jeremiah could not write. Indeed there are hints within the book that the prophet did on occasion take the pen in hand (see Jer. 32:10 and Jer. 51:60). It may be that Baruch was employed merely to relieve some of the burden of producing such a massive work. Anyone who has undertaken an extensive writing project knows the inestimable value of a good secretary. Josephus relates that Baruch was exceptionally well instructed in his native tongue.[309] Baruch, who appeared for the first time in Jer. 32:12, seems to have been from a noble family. His brother Seraiah was in the royal service (Jer. 51:59) and according to Josephus his grandfather was Maaseiah (2Ch. 34:8), the governor of the city.
[309] Antiquities X. 9. 1.
Just exactly how long it took to complete the writing of the scroll is not stated. It may have been a matter of days or weeks. The writing began in the fourth year of Jehoiakim; the scroll was publicly read in the fifth year and the ninth month. Assuming that the public reading of the scroll took place some time very soon after the writing, some scholars would posit as much as a year or more for the writing process. It is best however to leave the matter of the length of time involved an open question.
Fuente: College Press Bible Study Textbook Series
II. THE INDESTRUCTIBLE WORD Jer. 36:1-32
As has been repeatedly emphasized thus far, the fourth year of Jehoiakim was a turning point both in the political world and in the ministry of Jeremiah the prophet. This was the year in which the famous battle of Carchemish determined Which power would rule the world for the next half-century or so. It was in this same year that Jeremiah was commissioned by the Lord to permanently record the messages which he had been preaching for the past twenty-three years. It is difficult to determine which came first, the battle or the writing. Jer. 36:29 has been submitted as proving that Nebuchadnezzar had not yet won at Carchemish, had not yet swept down through Syria-Palestine. But since Nebuchadnezzar invaded this area so many times it is hardly possible to dogmatically insist that Jer. 36:29 must refer to the first invasion. On the other hand, while the battle of Carchemish seems to have occurred early in the fourth year of Jehoiakim, the scroll was not read publicly until the ninth month of the fifth year of his reign (Jer. 36:9). One must of course allow for a slow process of writing in those days. But even so it is difficult to see how the beginning of the writing could be pushed back prior to Carchemish in the early part of the preceding year.
Chapter 36 is instructive from several standpoints. First, it throws considerable light upon the history of the Book of Jeremiah. The scroll produced at the dictation of Jeremiah was the first edition of the book. That book was destined to undergo two and possibly three subsequent editions before it finally reached the form in which it is found in the English Bible today. Secondly, this chapter provides a wealth of information about the mechanics of producing a Biblical book. Involved in the process were a roll-book, pen, ink, the selection of a scribe, and the actual dictation. It is not unlikely that the procedures followed here were followed in the case of many other books of the Old Testament, Then too this chapter marks a turning point in the career of Jeremiah. mile he was only a preacher, Jeremiahs influence was limited by and large to his native land. But when he committed his sermons to writing he was destined to influence the world for generations to come.
A. The Word Written Jer. 36:1-4
TRANSLATION
(1) And it came to pass in the fourth year of Jehoiakim the son of Josiah, king of Judah, that this word came unto Jeremiah from the LORD, saying, (2) Take for yourself a book-scroll and write in it all the words which I have spoken unto you concerning Israel, and concerning Judah, and concerning all the nations, from the day I spoke unto you in the days of Josiah even unto this day. (3) Per haps the house of Judah will hear of all the calamity which I am planning to do to them, in order that they might turn each man from his evil way, that I might forgive their iniquity and their sin. (4) And Jeremiah called Baruch the son of Neriah, and Baruch wrote from the mouth of Jeremiah all the words of the LORD, which he spoke unto him, upon the book-scroll.
COMMENTS
The first paragraph of chapter 36 relates how Jeremiah received a commandment from the Lord to commit his messages to writing and how the prophet executed that command.
Fuente: College Press Bible Study Textbook Series
XXXVI.
(1) The fourth year of Jehoiakim . . .The prophetic message that follows is brought by the date thus given into close contact with Jeremiah 25, and it is a reasonable inference that we have in that chapter the substance of part, at least, of what was written by Baruch from the prophets dictation in Jer. 36:4. The contents exactly agree with the description of the prophecy given here in Jer. 36:2.
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
1. Fourth year of Jehoiakim This is also the date of chapter 25. (See Jer 25:1.) But probably the twenty-fifth chapter belongs in the beginning of this year, while this chapter should fall near its close. For the reading “in the ears of the people,” did not take place until the ninth month of the following year. (See Jer 36:9.) From the first verse of Daniel we learn that the capture of Jerusalem took place in the fourth year of Jehoiakim. It is not unlikely that this event falls between the two chapters above mentioned.
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
YHWH Tells Jeremiah To Write Down His Prophecies ( Jer 36:1-3 ).
Jer 36:1
‘And it came about in the fourth year of Jehoiakim the son of Josiah, king of Judah, that this word came to Jeremiah from YHWH, saying,’
This event is fairly precisely dated, occurring in 605 BC. It may possibly have been just prior to Jerusalem’s enforced submission to Nebuchadnezzar after he had defeated the Egyptians at Carchemish and Hamath, and had sacked Ashkelon (this would explain the calling of a fast day as they may have been deciding what they would do next in the face of the sacking of Ashkelon).
Alternatively others see it as a fast declared after their subjection to Babylon, with it being intended as a sad memorial of it, with a view to stirring up antagonism against the Babylonians. We could then see in this an attempt by Jeremiah to quell that sense of rebellion.
Jer 36:2
“Take you a roll of a written record, and write in it all the words that I have spoken to you against Israel, and against Judah, and against all the nations, from the day that I spoke to you, from the days of Josiah, even to this day.”
Jeremiah was commanded to take ‘a roll of a written record’, a phrase also occurring in Psa 40:7; Eze 2:9; Eze 3:1; Zec 5:1-2. This would probably be made up of papyrus strips glued together to form a scroll of up to ten metres (thirty feet) long and thirty centimetres (ten inches) wide. The scroll would be wound round two ‘rollers’, two suitable pieces of wood, which could be held one in each hand so that the scroll could be unrolled from one piece of wood on to the other while it was being read. The writing would be in columns parallel to the two rods and following one after the other. Thus one or two columns, or even more, could be seen at a time as the scroll was being read.
On it he was to write ‘all the words that I have spoken to you against Israel, and against Judah, and against all the nations, from the day that I spoke to you, from the days of Josiah, even to this day.’ It probably contained a good deal of chapters 1-20 and possibly some of what followed later (prophesied prior to this date).
It is difficult to believe that YHWH only ever suggested this need to write down his prophecies to Jeremiah, and we may therefore see it as probable that most of the prophets followed this tactic (compare Hos 8:12; Isa 30:8 ; 2Ch 21:12; 2Ch 26:22; Job 19:23). Indeed it is quite probable that Jesus called Matthew (Levi), the public servant and experienced keeper of records, for that very purpose.
Jer 36:3
“It may be that the house of Judah will hear all the evil which I purpose to do to them, that they may return every man from his evil way, that I may forgive their iniquity and their sin.”
The expressed hope was that Judah would hear of the evils which YHWH purposed to bring on them because of their disobedience, and would repent, ‘returning every man from his evil way’, so that their inward sin and their outward acts of transgression might be forgiven, thus enabling YHWH to alter course. God was still concerned to bring all men to repentance and into a knowledge of the truth.
Fuente: Commentary Series on the Bible by Peter Pett
Jeremiah Writes Out His Prophecies In Written Form And Commits Them To Baruch Who Reads Them Out In The Temple. The Scroll Eventually Reaches Jehoiakim Who Demonstrates His Contempt For The Prophet By Slowly Burning It Once It Has Been Read Out, Something That Causes YHWH To Pronounce Judgment On Him. Jeremiah Then Rewrites His Prophecies With Further Additions ( Jer 36:1-32 ).
We have here the third example of the disobedience which was so prevalent in Judah. The first was revealed in their hypocritical attitude to the freeing of their bondmen and bondwomen. The second was revealed in the contrast between the people and the Rechabites. This third brings out the attitude of the leadership towards YHWH.
One great importance of this chapter is that it demonstrates conclusively that it was not unusual for prophets to record their prophecies in writing with a view to them being read out. Jeremiah was at this time in some way under restraint and he therefore calls on his faithful amanuensis Baruch to record his prophecies, and then to read them out in the Temple. His concern was to avert the wrath of YHWH from the people by constraining them to respond to His covenant.
When the leading men of Judah, ‘the princes’, learned of this reading out of Jeremiah’s prophecies in the Temple they called on Baruch to come and read the scroll to them, and stirred by the words determined to bring them to the king, as was their duty. But meanwhile, knowing the evil propensities of the king and what might happen once he knew of Jeremiah’s prophecies, some of them advised Baruch and Jeremiah to go into hiding.
When the king learned of the scroll he had it brought to him and read before him, but after every three or four sections, with the approval of most of his nearest courtiers and despite the protests of some, he, or the reader at his command, would take a ‘knife’ and slice off the portion that had been read and throw it into the fire in order to indicate what he thought of it, thereby no doubt hoping to annul the prophecy (compare how Hananiah had broken the symbolic yoke – Jer 28:10). This went on until the whole scroll had been burned. It was indeed an open declaration that he was not willing to listen to the voice of YHWH. But it was a foolish action for by it he brought YHWH’s greater judgment on himself.
Fuente: Commentary Series on the Bible by Peter Pett
SECTION 2 ( Jer 26:1 to Jer 45:5 ).
Whilst the first twenty five chapters of Jeremiah have mainly been a record of his general prophecies, mostly given during the reigns of Josiah and Jehoiakim, and have been in the first person, this second section of Jeremiah (Jer 26:1 to Jer 45:5) is in the third person, includes a great deal of material about the problems that Jeremiah faced during his ministry and provides information about the opposition that he continually encountered. This use of the third person was a device regularly used by prophets so that it does not necessarily indicate that it was not directly the work of Jeremiah, although in his case we actually have good reason to think that much of it was recorded under his guidance by his amanuensis and friend, Baruch (Jer 36:4).
It can be divided up as follows:
1. Commencing With A Speech In The Temple Jeremiah Warns Of What Is Coming And Repudiates The Promises Of The False Prophets (Jer 26:1 to Jer 29:32).
2. Promises Are Given Of Eventual Restoration And Of A New Covenant Written In The Heart (Jer 30:1 to Jer 33:26).
3. YHWH’s Continuing Word of Judgment Is Given Through Jeremiah And Its Repercussions Leading Up To The Fall Of Jerusalem Are Revealed (Jer 34:1 to Jer 39:18).
4. Events Subsequent To The Fall Of Jerusalem (Jer 40:1 to Jer 45:5).
Fuente: Commentary Series on the Bible by Peter Pett
SECTION 2 ( Jer 26:1 to Jer 45:5 ). (continued).
As we have previously seen this Section of Jeremiah from Jer 26:1 to Jer 45:5 divides up into four main subsections, which are as follows:
1. Commencing With A Speech In The Temple Jeremiah Warns Of What Is Coming And Repudiates The Promises Of The False Prophets (Jer 26:1 to Jer 29:32).
2. Following The Anguish To Come Promises Are Given Of Eventual Restoration, Central To Which is A New Covenant Written In The Heart And The Establishment Of A Shoot (Branch) Of David On His Throne (Jer 30:1 to Jer 33:26).
3. YHWH’s Continuing Word of Judgment Is Given Through Jeremiah, The Continuing Disobedience Of The People Is Brought Out, And Jeremiah’s Resulting Experiences Leading Up To The Fall Of Jerusalem Are Revealed (Jer 34:1 to Jer 38:28).
4. The Fall Of Jerusalem And Events Subsequent To It Are Described (Jer 39:1 to Jer 45:5).
We have already commented on Subsections 1). in Jeremiah 4 and subsection 2). in Jeremiah 5. We must now therefore consider subsection 3). This subsection deals with various experiences of Jeremiah (although not in chronological order) in the days of Jehoiakim and Zedekiah.
Section 2 Subsection 3. YHWH’s Continuing Word of Judgment Is Given Through Jeremiah, The Continuing Disobedience Of The People Is Brought Out, And Jeremiah’s Resulting Experiences Leading Up To The Fall Of Jerusalem Are Revealed ( Jer 34:1 to Jer 38:28 ).
The promise of future restoration having been laid out Jeremiah now returns to the current situation with Jerusalem under threat. He demonstrates the different ways in which YHWH has been rejected, and treated with contempt by 1). a hypocritical pretence of obedience to the covenant, which is reneged on, 2). a treating of YHWH’s Fatherhood with contempt by the people, something which is in stark contrast with the obedience and reverence shown by the Rechabites to their father, 3). a burning of YHWH’s very word in a brazier, and 4). a continuing misuse of YHWH’s prophet. All this but confirms YHWH’s prophecies of judgment against Jerusalem,
The subsection divides up easily into five parts, each of which is opened by a crucial phrase, thus:
1. 34:1-7 ‘The word which came to Jeremiah from YHWH when Nebuchadnezzar — fought against Jerusalem and all its cities.’ This was a word declaring that Jerusalem would be destroyed and Zedekiah would be carried off to Babylon and meet Nebuchadnezzar face to face. There he will die ‘in peace’ and be lamented by his nobles.
2. 34:8-22 ‘The word which came to Jeremiah from YHWH after King Zedekiah had made a covenant with all the people at Jerusalem to proclaim freedom to them.’ Zedekiah having persuaded the more wealthy in Jerusalem to enter into a covenant before YHWH to set free their Hebrew slaves, thus fulfilling the Sinai covenant, the more wealthy do so, but once the danger appears to be past, change their minds and re-enslave them, bringing down on themselves the renewed wrath of YHWH and the certainty of Babylonian subjection.
3. 35:1-19 ‘The word which came to Jeremiah from YHWH in the days of Jehoiakim.’ YHWH uses the example of the Rechabites as an illustration of a filial obedience to their father, which is the very opposite of Judah’s disobedience to their Father, something which will result in judgment coming on Judah and Jerusalem.
4. 36:1-32 ‘And it came about in the fourth year of Jehoiakim — this word came to Jeremiah from YHWH.’ Jeremiah records his prophecies in a book in the days of Jehoiakim, prophecies which impress the nobles, but which are treated with disdain by Jehoiakim and his associates, resulting in Jehoiakim cutting up the ‘leaves’ of the book and burning them, thereby bringing judgment on himself.
5. 37:1-38:28 ‘And king Zedekiah the son of Josiah reigned instead of Coniah — but did not listen to the words YHWH which He spoke by the prophet Jeremiah.’ YHWH’s prophet is rejected. Jeremiah warns the king not to expect deliverance through the approaching Egyptian army, and on seeking to visit his hometown during a lull in the siege is accused of attempted desertion and is shut up in prison, although there he is surreptitiously consulted by Zedekiah. His various sufferings, resulting from his prophesying, including a near death experience, are described, and he ends up in the royal prison where he is comparatively well treated.
It will be noted from this that after the initial warning of the success of the Babylonians there is a continuing emphasis on the growing disobedience towards, and rejection of, YHWH and His covenant. This is illustrated firstly by the breaking of a solemn covenant made by the people, a covenant in which they guaranteed to free their Hebrew slaves as required by the Sinaitic covenant, something which they subsequently reneged on; secondly by a disobedience which is shown to be the direct opposite of the obedience of the Rechabites (who sought to be faithful to the principles of wilderness days) to their father; thirdly by the disrespect shown to YHWH’s prophecies as written down by Jeremiah when Jehoiakim contemptuously burned them in a brazier; and fourthly by the continual disrespect shown to Jeremiah himself in his various imprisonments. The growth in intensity of the disobedience as each chapter progresses (breach of the ancient covenant, falling short of a righteous example presented before their very eyes, burning the currently received word of YHWH, and finally misusing the prophet of YHWH because of his up to date prophecies), helps to explain why the prophecies have been put in this order.
We may also see here a deliberate attempt to sandwich between two references to the approaching end and to Zedekiah’s reign, reasons as to why that end is necessary from earlier days. This follows a similar pattern to chapters 21-24 which also sandwiched earlier situations between two examples of the days of Zedekiah.
Fuente: Commentary Series on the Bible by Peter Pett
Jer 36:23 And it came to pass, that when Jehudi had read three or four leaves, he cut it with the penknife, and cast it into the fire that was on the hearth, until all the roll was consumed in the fire that was on the hearth.
Jer 36:23
Comments – Ancient historians tell us that prior to the first century A.D., the Scriptures were contained on scrolls, which were rolled up for easy storage and handling. Scribes wrote in short columns as the scroll was unrolled on one end and rolled up on the other end. It was read the same way, as the scroll was unrolled a section at a time. The question is asked if the leaves that Jehudi cut with his knife were in a book or the columns of a scroll. Modern translations show that scholars debate over this issue. Some translations read, “columns,” while others read, “leaves.”
Rotherham, “So then it came to pass when Jehudi had read three or four columns that he cut it up into fragments with a scribes knife, and cast them into the fire that was in the stove, until, all the roll, was consumed on the fire that was on the stove.”
YLT, “and it cometh to pass, when Jehudi readeth three or four leaves , he cutteth it out with the scribe’s knife, and hath cast unto the fire, that is on the stove, till the consumption of all the roll by the fire that is on the stove.”
Fuente: Everett’s Study Notes on the Holy Scriptures
The Prophecies Recorded and Read
v. 1. And it came to pass in the fourth year of Jehoiakim, the son of Josiah, king of Judah, v. 2. Take thee a roll of a book, v. 3. It may be that the house of Judah will hear all the evil which I purpose to do unto them, that they may return every man from his evil way, v. 4. Then Jeremiah called Baruch, the son of Neriah, v. 5. And Jeremiah commanded Baruch, saying, I am shut up, v. 6. therefore go thou and read in the roll which thou hast written from say mouth the words of the Lord in the ears of the people in the Lord’s house, v. 7. It may be they will present their supplication before the Lord, v. 8. And Baruch, the son of Neriah, did according to all that Jeremiah, the prophet, commanded him, reading in the book the words of the Lord in the Lord’s house, v. 9. And it came to pass in the fifth year of Jehoiakim, the son of Josiah, king of Judah, in the ninth month, that they proclaimed a fast before the Lord to all the people in Jerusalem and to all the people that came from the cities of Judah unto Jerusalem, v. 10. Then read Baruch in the book, v. 11. When Michaiah, the son of Gemariah, the son of Shaphan, had heard out of the book all the words of the Lord, v. 12. then he went down into the king’s house, into the scribe’s chamber, v. 13. Then Michaiah declared unto them all the words that he had heard when Baruch read the book in the ears of the people. v. 14. Therefore all the princes, v. 15. And they said unto him, Sit down now and read it in our ears. So Baruch read it in their ears.
v. 16. Now it came to pass, when they had heard all the words, they were afraid both one and other, v. 17. And they asked Baruch, saying, Tell us now, How didst thou write all these words at his mouth? v. 18. Then Baruch answered them, He,
Fuente: The Popular Commentary on the Bible by Kretzmann
CHAPTERS 36-38.
NARRATIVE OF EVENTS PRECEDING THE SIEGE OF JERUSALEM.
Jer 36:1-32.
THE ROLL OF PROPHECY DESTROYED BY JEHOIAKIM.
EXPOSITION
In the fourth year of Jehoiakim (which, it is important to remember, was the first of Nebuchadnezzar) Jeremiah was directed to write down all his previous revelations, from the beginning of his ministry to the present day. Such, at least, is the literal meaning of verses 1, 2; but it would seem that the literal meaning can hardly be the right one. First of all, a historically accurate reproduction of the prophecies would not have suited Jeremiah’s object, which was not historical, but practical; he desired to give a salutary shock to the people by bringing before them the fatal consequences of their evil deeds. And next, it appears from verse 29 that the purport of the roll which the king burned was that the King of Babylon should “come and destroy this land;” whereas it is clear that Jeremiah had uttered many other important declarations in the course of his already long ministry.
Now, it is remarkable, and points the way to a solution of the problem, that Jer 25:1-38. is said (Jer 25:1) to have been written in the very same year to which the narrative before us refers, and that it is mainly concerned with the invasion of Nebuchadnezzar and its consequences (indeed, entirely so, if we admit that Jer 25:12, Jer 25:26 have received interpolation).
Is not this the prophecy which Jeremiah dictated to Baruch? je-2 and is not verse 2 a loose, inaccurate statement due to a later editor? That the prophetic as well as the historical books have passed through various phases (without detriment to their religious value) is becoming more and more evident. The seventh and eighth chapters of Isaiah, and the thirty-seventh and thirty-eighth of the same book, have demonstrably been brought into their present shape by an editor (see Cheyne’s ‘Prophecies of Isaiah,’ vol. 1.); is it not highly reasonable to conjecture that these narrative chapters of Jeremiah have, to a greater or less extent, passed through a similar process (see below on verse 6)?
Jer 36:4
Baruch. Already mentioned as Jeremiah’s attendant, in Jer 32:12. He appears to have been of high rank (see on Jer 32:15), as Josephus, indeed, expressly states (‘Ant.,’ 10.9, 1). Maaseiah, his grandfather, was governor of the city (2Ch 34:8), and Seraiah his brother (Jer 51:59) held some equally honourable, though not so easily definable, position in the court.
Jer 36:5
I am shut up. Not so; Jeremiah was not detained by material force. Some strong reason he had (perhaps of a ceremonial kind), but as it was irrelevant to the narrative, it is not given. Render, I am detained (same verb as in 1Sa 21:7).
Jer 36:6
Upon the fasting day. The mention of the fast day suggests that Jer 36:9 is out of its place, which again confirms the view that the narrative before us has received its present form from an editor. In the ears of all Judah (see Jer 36:9).
Jer 36:7
They will present their supplication; literally, their supplication will fall. The phrase seems to be suggested by the gesture of a suppliant. Hence humility is one idea; but success is entirely another. That which lights down before one’s eyes cannot be disregarded. Hence, in Jer 37:20 and Jer 42:2, the Authorized Version renders, “be accepted.” This is, at any rate, a better rendering than that quoted above, which is both weak in itself and obscures the connection. And will return; rather, so that they return. “Returning,” i.e. repentance, is necessary, because their “evil ways” have provoked Jehovah to “great anger and fury;” but is only possible by the Divine help (comp. Act 5:31, “To give repentance unto Israel”). Hence prayer is the first duty.
Jer 36:9
In the fifth year of Jehoiakim. It is remarkable that the Septuagint has here the eighth year; and Josephus, too, relates that Jehoiakim paid tribute to Nebuchadnezzar in his eighth year. This latter statement seems to tally with the notices in 2Ki 24:1-20. The vassalage of Jehoiakim is there said to have lasted three years; this followed the rebellion; while the siege of Jerusalem was reserved for the short reign of Jehoiachin. Now, as this siege must have been the punishment of Jehoiakim’s rebellion, and as the reign of the latter king lasted eleven years, we are brought to the same date as that given by Josephus for the commencement of the vassalage, viz. the eighth year. It is to this year, then, that 2Ki 24:1 refers when it says, “In his days Nebuchadnezzar King of Babylon came up, and Jehoiakim became his servant;” and also the narrative before us in the statement that “they proclaimed a fast before Jehovah to all the people in Jerusalem, and to all the people that came from the cities of Judah unto Jerusalem.” What other event would have produced such a concourse of worshippers? The battle of Carchemish (which took place in the fourth year of Jehoiakim)? But it was by no means clear as yet that the consequences of this would be disastrous for Judah. Carchemish was too far off for the people of Judah to show such serious alarm. If so, Jeremiah kept his prophecy by him for several years, till the fight moment came. The ninth month. As this is a winter month (see verse 22), Jeremiah evidently reckons by the Babylonian calendar, the ninth month of which, Kisiluv (Hebrew, Chisleu), began from the new moon of December.
Jer 36:10
The chamber (see on Jer 35:4) of Genesisariah the scribe. Genesisariah was favourably disposed to Jeremiah (verse 25); he was probably the brother of Jeremiah’s friend, Ahikam (Jer 26:24). He was one of the royal secretaries, and reckoned among the “princes” (see verse 12). In the higher court. “Higher” equivalent to “inner.” The new gate (see on Jer 20:2).
Jer 36:12
He went down (see on Jer 26:10). Sat there. In deliberation on the affairs of the state. Elishama the scribe. Gemariah, then, had a colleague. So in Solomon’s cabinet there were two soferim, or secretaries, one perhaps for the civil and one for the military business (1Ki 4:3; comp, Jer 52:25). Elnathan. Mentioned already, Jer 26:22.
Jer 36:14
Jehudi the son of Cushi. A genealogy which contains a history. Jehudi is not a true proper name, any more than Gadi (“a Gadite”), the quasi-name of the father of Menahem (2Ki 15:14), or than Cushi, the quasi-name of Jehudi’s great-grandfather. Cushi himself was, doubtless, an Ethiopian, and probably (like Ebed-melech, Jer 38:7) a eunuch, or at least chamberlain; his son and grandson were both worshippers of Jehovah (as their names indicate), but were not qualified to become Jewish citizens. The Egyptian was not, indeed, to be abhorred, but not until the third generation could his descendants be admitted into” the congregation” (Deu 23:8). Egypt and Ethiopia were historically connected (see Lenormant’s ‘Ancient History,’ index to vol. 1.). For the name of “Jehudi,” comp. “Jehudith,” daughter of Beeri the Hittite (Gen 26:34).
Jer 36:15
Sit down now. The princes evidently recognize Baruch as belonging to a family of distinction (see on verse 4); and from verses 19, 25 we may infer that they were favourably inclined beth to Baruch and to his master (comp. ch. 26.).
Jer 36:16
They were afraid both one and other; rather, they turned shudderingly one to another. Such an announcement as Jeremiah’s at such a serious crisis startled them by its boldness. We may infer that the prophet had for some time, by Divine command, kept his sombre anticipations in the background. We will surely tell the king; rather, we have to tell the king. Friendly feeling would have prompted them to hush up the affair (see Jer 27:20, Jer 27:21), but duty forbade.
Jer 36:17
How didst thou write all these words at his mouth! Two questions seem to be combined here”How didst thou write all these words?” and “Didst thou write it all at his mouth?” Baruch’s answer is good for both.
Jer 36:18
He pronounced, etc.; rather, He kept dictating while I wrote with ink, etc. The addition of the last clause suggests (and was, perhaps, intended to do so) that Baruch’s function was simply mechanical.
Jer 36:20
Into the court; i.e. into the inner court, in which the royal apartments were apparently situated.
Jer 36:21
Which stood beside the king; literally,above the king. The standing courtiers, of course, rose above the king; comp. Isa 6:2, “Seraphim stood above him.”
Jer 36:22
In the winter house; i.e. that part of the royal palace which was arranged for a winter habitation (comp. Amo 3:15). According to Dr. Thomson, the more airy part of a house is called “summerhouse,” and the more sheltered room “winter house.” The ninth month, in which the events now being related took place, corresponded approximately to our December. It was, therefore, the cold and rainy season; December is a stormy month in Palestine. A fire on the hearth; rather, in the chafing dish (or, brazier). It was a vessel with live coals placed in the centre of the room, still used in the East in cold weather.
Jer 36:23
Three or four leaves; rather, columns or compartments. “Leaves” would imply that it was a book out of which Jehudi read, Whereas it was a roll (m’gillah never has any other meaning). But “books” were not yet known, nor would a knife have been necessary to separate the pages. He cut it. The subject may be either the king or Jehudi (at the bidding of the king). The term implies that the action of cutting was repeated several times; but we are not to suppose that each successive portion was cut off as it was read. The indignation of the hearer translated itself into the repeated mutilation of the roll, until all the roll was (east into the fire and) consumed. With the penknife; literally, with the scribe’s knife. On the hearth; rather, in the chafing dish (or, brazier).
Jer 36:24
Yet they were not afraid. Unlike Josiah (2Ki 22:11), and even Ahab (1 Kings, 1Ki 21:27). Nor any of his servants; i.e. the courtiers, as opposed to the “princes.”
Jer 36:26
The son of Hammelech; rather, a royal prince (we should render similarly in Jer 38:6; 1Ki 22:26; 2Ki 11:1, 2Ki 11:2; Zep 1:8). We have seen already that the number of such royal princes was very large (see on Jer 17:9); any one, in fact, who had a king among his ancestors was a “royal prince.” The Lord hid them; i.e. saved them from discovery.
Jer 36:27-32
Punishment denounced against Jehoiakim, and second writing of the former prophecy.
Jer 36:29
Thou shalt say to Jehoiakim; rather, concerning Jehoiakim. Intercourse between Jehoiakim and the prophet was broken off by the preceding scene. The speech begins in the oratio directa, but soon passes into the obliqua. Cause to cease man and beast. A forcible description of the completeness of the devastation.
Jer 36:30
He shall have none to sit, etc. Substantially a repetition of the prophecy in Jer 22:18, Jer 22:19.
Jer 36:31
I will bring upon them, etc. (comp. Jer 35:17; Jer 19:15).
Jer 36:32
Many like words. Thus Jehoiakim gained nothing by his sin (comp. Introduction).
HOMILETICS
Jer 36:1-4
The writing of the roll.
I. WHO WERE ENGAGED IN THE WRITING OF THE ROLL?
1. God.
(1) The thoughts of the prophecies to be recorded were inspired by God. “Prophecy” means “inspired utterance.” Jeremiah was to write the words that I have spoken unto thee. We should seek in the Bible chiefly, not the scribe’s letters (grammatical study), nor the prophet’s words (historical theology), but God’s thoughts (spiritual truth).
(2) God commanded the writing of the roll (verse 2). The Bible is given to us by God. It is his will that the sayings of ancient prophets and apostles should be the lamp for all ages. Therefore
(a) he will bless the right reading of the Bible, and
(b) he will call us to account for the use we make of it.
2. Jeremiah. God does not speak to mankind by a direct and audible voice as with the thunder tones of Sinai. He speaks through an instrumenta man, a prophet. And this prophet is plainly not just a mechanical mouthpiece to the Divine voice. His personality counts for something. His style, mode of thought, experience, general knowledge, spiritual condition, etc; all mould his utterances of inspired truth. Jeremiah’s prophecies are characteristic of Jeremiah.
3. Baruch. The scribe has neither the genius to conceive the thought, nor the oratorical and literary gifts to clothe it in language. He is a simple amanuensis. Yet his work is important. For some reason not expressed, possibly like St. Paul on account of bodily weakness, Jeremiah did not write out his prophecies with his own hand. Thus work was found for Baruch. God finds offices corresponding to all varieties of gifts. But the less gifted are too often ambitious to per, form the more honoured tasks of greater men, or, fading in these, they are often reluctant to fulfil their more lowly calling.
II. WHY WAS THE ROLL WRITTEN? This roll was not to contain a new composition. It was to be only a writing of utterances which had already been made public. Why, then, was it written?
1. That the prophecies might be preserved. Truth is eternal. A truth once discovered should be cherished as a lasting possession. It may be lost, but it can never decay. “The Word of the Lord endureth forever;” therefore the record of it should be preserved as of permanent value.
2. That the prophecies might reach a larger audience. The roll could be frequently perused and by various readers. Revelation is not for the few initiated; it is for all who need its light.
3. That the prophecies might be reread to those who had already heard them. The use of them was not expended when they were first spoken. We are too ready to be attracted by mere novelty. The latest books and the latest ideas are run after to the neglect of greater thoughts and greater works of older date. But truth is more important than novelty. And old truths need to be repeated, because
(1) they may have been received with inattention at the first hearing;
(2) they may be better understood or newly applicable under fresh circumstances, and after the hearer has gained larger powers of insight by his growing experience;
(3) they may be so profound as to be practically inexhaustible, or so eternally fresh and inspiring as to be always useful;
(4) they fail of their end till they affect our conduct, and must be repeated “line upon line” while men fail to do what they know.
4. That the prophecies might he studied carefully and compared together. So we should study the Bible, searching the Scriptures and comparing parts together, as we can only do when the whole lies written before us.
III. WHAT WAS THE SCOPE AND AIM OF THE ROLL?
1. It was a record of God’s wrath against sin and a denunciation of judgment. The words so important that they needed to be thus recorded were spoken “against Israel, and against Judah, and against all the nations” (verse 2). People like to forget disagreeable ideas and cherish only those that please them. Yet there are times when it is for our own profit to face them. Surely it is best to know our danger if by the knowledge of it we can find a means to escape it, or, at the worst, be prepared to meet it. But if the revelation of judgment, and of temporal judgment, contained in Jeremiah’s prophecies was so precious as to be committed to writing under a solemn Divine commission, what value shall we set on the revelations of heavenly things and declarations of the glad tidings of salvation that are written in other parts of the Bible?
2. It aimed at leading the people to repentance. (Verse 3.) The threats of future calamities were first uttered with this end, and they were to be repeated for the same object. Thus the darkest words of revelation are spoken in mercy. If they are repeated, it is because God is so forbearing and anxious to save that he will not give his people up. The aim of revelation is practical. It is a lamp to our feet (Psa 119:105). The chief purpose of its warnings and its words of grace is to lead us back from sin to God. Thus the Bible, though the crowning work of all literature, should not be regarded chiefly from a literary point of view, but rather as containing messages from our Father to guide and help our conduct.
Jer 36:5-21
The reading of the roll.
I. THE READER. Baruch, the secretary of Jeremiah, is sent to read the roll. We do not know what cause detains the prophet. He has often made bold utterances in public before this. But if he cannot go the truth must not be hidden. “The Word of God is not bound” (2Ti 2:9). Truth is more important than the speaker. It matters little who is the messenger; all importance attaches to the message. Men forget this when they run after a Jeremiah and neglect a Baruch, though the scribe may be the bearer of the prophet’s teachings. We should recollect how much more important the gospel preached is than the man who preaches it. If a Chrysostom, a Paul, or an angel from heaven preach any other gospel but the true gospel of Christ, “let him be anathema.” But if Christ is proclaimed, we must be thankful for that, though the preacher and his conduct may not quite approve themselves to us (Php 1:18). Perhaps it was best that the prophet should not appear in person to repeat his message. His presence might reuse personal feelings to the neglect of bin message. He desired the truth to carry its own fair weight. Baruch did his work bravely and modestly. In repeating the prophet’s unpopular words, he would invite the odium that attached to them to pass on to himself. But his duty was to read the roll. God would see to the consequences. With this courage there was a remarkable modesty. The occasion was a tempting opportunity for Baruch to exercise his own powers by way of comment of addition. But he said nothing beyond what was written in the roll. He knew his place. The scribe is not a prophet. Why should not the great sermons of great preachers be sometimes read in our churches?
II. THE CIRCUMSTANCES OF THE READING. The roll was read to three audiences.
1. The people (verses 9, 10). The Bible is a book for the people, not for the priests or the learned only. The occasion of that reading was “a fasting day” (vex. 6). Then the people would be in the best mood for receiving the call to repentance. We should learn to speak “in season.” The place of the reading was the temple (verse 10). Instruction should be associated with worship.
2. The princes (verses 11-19). Divine truth is of importance to all classes. They who are in responsible positions are especially called upon to study the signs of the times.
3. The king (verses 20, 21). It was necessary that what concerned the fate of the kingdom should receive the most careful consideration of its monarch. Even kings must bow before the utterance of truth. A prophet can speak with authority to a king.
III. THE EFFECT OF READING. The effect on the people is not here indicated. Probably little moral good came of it; but there was evidently some impression made if the feelings of one man, Michaiah, may be taken in illustration. This man was so much stirred by what he heard that he immediately reported it to the princes at the court (verses 11-13). From this report other consequences flowed. If but one man out of a great congregation is seriously impressed by a sermon, that sermon has not failed; possibly through the one man it may be instrumental in effecting vast and lasting good. When the roll was read to the princes they were first dismayed (verse 16). How graphic is that picture of the great men of the kingdom as “they turned shuddering one to another,” terrified and confounded by the prophet’s words! Perhaps some of them had heard the same words before unmoved. The time may come when the most hardened will be roused. The terror of princes might be a wholesome beginning of a genuine repentance. But if no appropriate action followed, it would soon die away, leaving the conscience the more hardened and demoralized. We need to “bring forth fruits meet for repentance.” The princes inquired as to the origin of the roll. Were its words true? On what authority were they written? Such inquiries are reasonable. We should have a reason for accepting what we believe to be a Divine message. Yet it is dangerous to divert attention from the moral weight of truth by too much intellectual criticism about literary curiosities. The princes reported the matter to the king with a warning to Baruchpatriotic and generous conduct. The king’s reception of the book was very different. Unlike the princes, who neither accepted the message without question, nor rejected it for its unpleasant contents, but inquired calmly and carefully as to the authority of it, Jehoiakim flew into a rage and hastily destroyed it. What an act of supreme folly! The truth was not the less important because the record of it was burnt. “We can do nothing against the truth, but for the truth” (2Co 13:8).
Jer 36:22-26
The burning of the roll.
When the princes informed Jehoiakim of the circumstances connected with the reading of Jeremiah’s prophecies, the king sent an attendant, Jehudi, to fetch the roll and read it to him. It has been said that he showed contempt for the Word of God by relegating the reading to a page instead of sending for Baruch. But Baruch had probably escaped to seclusion at the warning of the courtiers (verse 19), and as he had left the roll in other hands, what was more natural than that Jehoiakim should send for it without a thought of Jeremiah’s appointment of a reader? Indeed, it matters little who reads; the question isHow is the reading received?
I. CONSIDER THE ACTION OF THE KING. It was Decemberthe cold and rainy month. A fire blazed on the brazier. As the roll was read, the king cut it up and flung the sections into the fire, till he had destroyed the whole of it. His action was one of rage and folly. He would have no more of the prophet’s dreadful words for himself; he would prevent them from further influencing others; he would vent his rage upon the record, though he could not touch the truths contained in it. Are there not many who inwardly sympathize with this violence of Jehoiakim? They dare not say they wish the Bible to be destroyed. But there are things in it which testify against them so strongly that they would keep them forever out of sight. The special features of Jehoiakim’s action are significant.
1. It was beyond his rights. King as he was, the roll did not belong to him. Neither had he any authority over the inspired word of prophecy. Earthly power confers no privilege and power in Divine things.
2. It was brutally violent. Jehoiakim cut up and burnt the rollthat was all he could do. To refute its contents was beyond his power.
3. It was vain and futile. The roll might be burnt, but the truth it contained could not be destroyed, nor could it even be suppressed. Another roll could be written, and the burning of the first would be an advertisement for the second. Violent opposition thus benefits the cause it would destroy. The burning of Tyndale’s Bibles was one of the best means for securing the circulation of a larger number of English Bibles.
4. It was suggested by a temptation. The fire was at handan unusual thing, apparently, just suited to the occasion. There is an evil providence as well as a higher providence of good. It is not safe to follow the superficial indication of events. That is as likely to come from below as from above.
5. It was deliberate. Piece by piece the roll was cut up and burnt. Hasty passion might excuse the first burning, but not the whole process.
6. It was complete. All the roll was consumed. There was no discrimination. The act was symbolical. The rejection Of one part of truth will lead to the rejection of the whole of it.
7. It was really injurious only to the perpetrator. The roll could not feel; the truth could not be destroyed; another roll could be written. But the burning of the roll was to the king’s own loss. That roll contained the only available prescription for the healing of the distresses of himself and his kingdom. The Bible is really sent for the good of the worst of men. Their rejection of it is only to their own loss.
II. CONSIDER THE CONDUCT OF THE COURTIERS.
1. Some stood by and watched the burning. They did not aid it; but they did not hinder it. Therefore they shared the responsibility of the king. For we are responsible for the evil we will not restrain as well as for that we commit, so that in doing little harm we may yet be guilty of much. The courtiers had no valid excuse for their indifference. Royal authority cannot justify acquiescence in wrong. Personal fear is no excuse, since it is better to die for the right than desert it in sheer cowardice. These men showed no fear (verse 24). They had been alarmed (verse 16). But religious fears are transitory, and if not acted on leave the heart more hardened than they find it.
2. Some expostulated. These men had been more permanently affected by the reading of Baruch. They carried the impressions made in the temple to their conduct at the court. That is a proof of a real influence of the words of Jeremiah upon them. It is little that we feel the weight of religion in church. The test is how far this dwells with us in the world, and when it would urge to unpopular, difficult, or dangerous actions.
Jer 36:27-32
The rewriting of the roll.
Under the inspiration of God Jeremiah requires Baruch to write another roll, containing all that was in the burnt roll and also some additional matter. We may take the following points connected with the rewriting of the roll
I. THE FRUSTRATION OF ALL ATTEMPTS TO SUPPRESS DIVINE TRUTH. Jehoiakim is a king and a tyrant. But there is a limit to his power. It is vain for him to attempt to hinder the declaration of God’s truth. If one roll is burnt another can be written. If one prophet were killed another could be raised up. Truth is eternal. It will survive all enmity, and it will find its way ultimately to the light. He who is against it plays a losing game.
II. THE PERSISTENCE OF GOD‘S DESIGNS. They are not to be set aside by all the scheming and all the violence of men. God does not change because we oppose his will. There is something awful in the thought of that great, inflexible will, firm as granite against all the raging of man’s foolish passions. By opposition we can only bring ourselves into collision with it to our hurt, as the waves dash themselves to spray on the rock they cannot break. We cannot stay its invincible progress
“Though the mills of God grind slowly,
Yet they grind exceeding small.”
If we wish to find God’s will working with us and for our good, we must submit to it. We cannot expect the great God to change his plans to suit our inclinations.
III. THE CONTINUANCE OF GOD‘S MERCY. Why should the roll be rewritten? The threats it contained could be executed without any reissue of them. If all fair warnings were disregarded, no more could be required. True, and no more were required, Yet out of his great, long suffering grace God issued his warnings afresh. This is the deeper truth that underlies the command to write out the prophecies once more. The same truth is illustrated in all the history of the Jews. God sent a succession of prophets, “rising up early and sending,” to impress upon the people the same unheeded lessons. The continuance of revelation with us is a reminder of God’s forbearing mercy.
Jer 36:32
(last clause)
The development of revelation.
“And there were added besides unto them many like words.” The second roll was a transcript of the first, but with numerous additions, though these were all similar in character to the original prophecies. We have here, on a small scale, an instance of that development of revelation which is evolved on similar principles through the whole realm of knowledge.
I. REVELATION FOLLOWS A PROCESS OF GRADUAL DEVELOPMENT. There are those to whom the word “development” has an evil sound, because of the excuse Roman Catholics have found in it for perversions of New Testament doctrines; while others object to it on account of its use in the scientific world, where they think it is meant to take the place of the will and wisdom of God. But the abuse of a word should not hide us from the important idea that it naturally denotes. Nothing is more true and grand and wonderful in all God’s works than the principle of development which his great power and wisdom has made to run through them. The dawn advances through twilight to full day; the seed grows slowly”first the blade, then the ear, then the full corn in the ear;” man begins life as an infant, and toils up to his full stature through years of childhood and youth; the kingdom of heaven began as a grain of mustard seed, and is slowly spreading till, from the work of that little company in the upper room at Jerusalem, “the earth shall be full of the knowledge of the Lord as the waters cover the sea.” Revelation is no exception to the same universal Divine process. God did not flash all his truth upon the world in one dazzling moment. The Bible is a slow growth of many centuries. Progress is observable in the Old Testament. Isaiah saw further than it was given to Abraham to see. Jeremiah’s vision of the new covenant (Jer 31:31-34) is in advance of the Levitical Law. The New Testament is a decided manifestation of broader knowledge and fuller light than the earlier revelation contained. Christ said to his disciples, “I have yet many things to say unto you, but ye cannot bear them now” (Joh 16:12). St. Paul’s teachings go beyond the doctrines held in his day by the Church at Jerusalem. We cannot say that God has nothing further to reveal. The Christian believes that “holy Scripture containeth all things necessary to salvation.” But all the analogy of God’s past action would lead us to think that there may be much truth which men were not at first able to see in the Scripture, and yet which may be known in successive ages and found to be of great profit.
1. The human occasion of this development of revelation may be seen in the fact that the thoughts of men grow. God reveals his truth in human thinking. Men must seek him, and, feeling after the truth, are rewarded by God’s revelation. But the revelation is proportionate to the progress of the search.
2. The Divine purpose of this development may be noted in such facts as these: God reveals truth as man is able to receive it, as he is spiritually educated to understand it, as he is in a moral condition to profit by it, as changing circumstances may bring need for new stages in the development of it.
II. THE DEVELOPMENT OF REVELATION IS CONSISTENT WITH ITSELF.
1. It does not set aside old truth. In the new roll all the contents of the old roll were rewritten, so that the fresh matter was not a substitute but an addition. Christ came to fulfil the Law and the prophets, not to destroy them (Mat 5:17). The gospel exceeds but does not supersede the spiritual truth of the Old Testament. No new discovery can ever destroy what is once known to be real and true.
2. This development maintains an essential likeness between its earliest and its latest stages. The added Words of Jeremiah’s roll were “like unto those which were first written. All truth must ultimately harmonize. One great test of a new doctrine is its agreement with previously established truth. All Christian truth must agree with the teachings of Christ and his apostles. That many so called developments of truth are really perversions of truth may be proved by the application of this test. Thus to us Protestants it seems clear that many Roman Catholic dogmas which profess to be developments of Christianity are so utterly contrary to its spirit that they must be regarded either as pagan additions or as relapses towards Judaism. So there are “liberal” notions that are really negations of essential elements of the gospel. It is monstrous to call these developments. The oak is a development of the acorn; but the hollow, blasted stump, which is the last stage in the history of the tree, is surely not a further result of the same process. Decay is not development.
HOMILIES BY A.F. MUIR
Jer 36:1-4
(Vide Jer 30:1-3.)M.
Jer 36:5-8
Vicarious ministry in holy things.
The “vicar,” an ecclesiastical officer of mediaeval times,explain the origin and nature of his duties. Show how large this question of vicarious service, and how universal its necessity, in business, society, the state, the Church, etc. This incident illustrates
I. ITS ESSENTIAL NATURE. Not merely that one should do, be, or suffer instead of another, but as representative of him. More or less consciously, sympathetically, adequately. That one man and not another should do a given duty, for instance, may be but the chance of fortune; but that he should do it for and in place of that other is for him to be that other’s “vicar.” This essential character of the transaction is not altered by the fact of the superiority, equality, or inferiority of the substitute.
II. ITS SUGGESTIVE INTEREST. An element of pathos and mystery. Perhaps the end better served in this than in the alternative way. Conceivable that the reading, the authoritative publication, and the supernatural interest, may have been enhanced rather than otherwise by the substitution.
1. The community of true service. How different in importance, etc; the function of the prophet in receiving the message and communicating it from that of the scribe! yet both are on this occasion indispensable. One man’s service the condition of another’s or its complement. All true service associated in relation to final ends and rewards (Joh 4:37, Joh 4:38; Heb 11:40).
2. An impression of urgency produced. This was the message it was absolutely important for Judah to hear at that time. God always speaks at the right time, even when that requires extraordinary efforts and unusual means. The latter on this occasion must have eloquently suggested that now was the “accepted time” and “the day of salvation.”
3. The earnestness of the prophet and his Inspirer. Jeremiah was the true friend of the nation and the devoted servant of Jehovah, therefore he did not excuse himself from the task because of its difficulties.
4. How inevitable the message? It was not to be evaded or suppressed. From the prison or hiding place the prophet wilt still be heard.
III. ITS ETHICS. Service of the kind here described was justifiable only on the supposition that the original or principal in responsibility is unable to do his own proper work, or that it can be better done by being delegated to another. Jeremiah is careful to explain why he does not do it himself. Would that the reasons for non-attendance in the sanctuary, or inoccupation in spiritual work, were as real and valid in the case of professing Christians!
1. On the part of the person instead of whom the service was rendered. He did not ask his substitute to do what he could do himself; and what he alone could do was done with the utmost care and diligence. It is calculated that the writing out of the roll from the prophet’s dictation occupied nine months, and many delays and difficulties must have been experienced. His solicitude, too, on behalf of the proper delivery of the message by Baruch, is very instructive and inspiring. He sought (God’s end in) the repentance of the people, and everything was to conspire to produce this. By example and moral influence he sought to fill Baruch with his own enthusiasm, and a sense of the importance of the task. The preacher is the vicar of the Church; so with the Sunday school teacher, etc. By prayer, sympathy, and loving cooperation Christians should encourage these.
2. On the part of the substitute. Baruch sought to do his part faithfully and with minute exactitude. His success in producing an impression proved how he exerted himself. A sense of responsibility should ever rest upon those who minister in the house of God. A certain measure of boldness was also required to do such a thug. The people or their princes might turn against him. Boldness is essential to the preaching of the gospel. But there cannot but occur to most readers the parallelism there is in all this to what Christ has undertaken for us. Another temple from whose service we are “shut up” by reason of personal unfitness, or that we remain in the flesh. Christ, our great Forerunner and Vicar, or Substitute, has entered into its holy of holies, with his own eternal sacrifice and intercession. Upon him all our hope must be placed; we must follow him in spirit; and we must imitate Jeremiah in the zeal and labour with which we execute our part of the great process of salvation.M.
Jer 36:9-16
Free course of the Word of God.
The progress made by the messages of Jeremiah when read aloud in the scribe’s cell at the entrance of the higher court of the temple was very remarkable, and fully justified the great care and ingenuity with which it was effected.
I. A SANCTIFIED INGENUITY SHOULD BE SHOWN IN TAKING ADVANTAGE OF OR CREATING SUITABLE OCCASIONS FOR MAKING KNOWN GOD‘S WORD.
II. THE WORD OF GOD IS COMMENDED BY ITS GENERAL AND SPECIAL HUMAN INTEREST.
III. WHEN ONE INSTRUMENTALITY FAILS, GOD WILL RAISE UP ANOTHER, UNTIL HIS MESSAGE ATTAINS ITS DESTINATION.M.
Jer 36:16-18
The mystery of inspiration.
I. THE NATURAL DESIRE TO SOLVE IT.
1. This has its root in mere curiosity. A desire to know for the sake of knowinglaudable enough in itself, but in danger of passing into irreverence and idle speculation. Religious movements and supernatural phenomena have excited this wonder in all ages. Religion interests many as a problem, where it is refused attention or respect as a law.
2. This is increased by the attraction of the forbidden and unlawful. An anticipation of the “profane and vain babblings, and oppositions of science [the knowledge] falsely so called,” against which Timothy is warned (1Ti 6:20; cf. Col 2:8, Col 2:18, Col 2:19). The sin of Simon Magus was analogous.
3. It is also increased by the natural mind’s intolerance of mystery. There are multitudes who would willingly inquire how a miracle may be wrought, who have no desire to learn why. It is humiliating to our natural pride to realize that there are so many things in the universe we cannot explain. The authority which the supernatural lends to the doctrines and revelations of religion is resented.
II. HOW IT IS SATISFIED.
1. The direction of their questioning. They asked concerning the mechanical processthe manner, etc; of the prophet, apparently unconscious that the real problem lay behind all that. “Did the prophet stammer whilst the inspiration was upon him? Was his manner wild or strange?” Now, we know that the manner of the person receiving Divine inspiration may be perfectly indistinguishable from that of those who are under ordinary human conditions. But they fell into the error of supposing that, when that was determined, the solution of the problem would be advanced.
2. Where it ended. There is no further curiosity; they remain at arm’s length from the kernel of the whole question. The moral conditions of it are of no concern to them. Theirs is the radical carelessness with respect to religion as such which characterizes the carnal mind. Their inquiries ended just where they ought to have begun; just as those of many nowadayslingerers or loiterers in the perch, who never enter into the temple. Conscience could answer much that curiosity leaves untouched. The deep necessity of God communion forevery man and nation to which it witnesses, is what the whole process of revelation presupposes. God will not leave man alone. His supernatural workings continually witness to his presence and authority. And man cannot do without God and his Word.M.
Jer 36:20-26
Jehoiakim’s penknife,
This became a proverbial phrase for religious indifference of the most callous description. Not that Jehoiakim actually cut the roll himself; but Jehudi, who did it, was evidently under his orders. It is a little uncertain as to whether the whole of the manuscript, or a part only, was read; but as “had read” represents an imperfect tease, and the words “till all the roll was consumed” imply a gradual process, it seems more probable that the former was the ease. There is here the same unconquerable spirit of curiosity to know what the prophet said, utterly separated from religious earnestness or obedience. It is a fearfully impressive tableau which is presented, suggestive of
I. THE ENMITY OF THE CARNAL MIND TO DIVINE TRUTH, The king cannot leave the manuscript alone, but he strives to make up for that weakness by:
1. Contempt. A page or domestic scribe is employed to read, instead of the king reading for himself; whilst the chief officers sit with their royal master, ridiculing it. There are many who dare not part company with religion, who revenge themselves by making light of its warnings and ordinances. Their contempt is a little overdone, in proportion to the latent, unconfessed fear.
2. Destruction. Dislike of the truth itself transfers itself also to the vehicle by which it is conveyed. It is a sign of the indwelling of the evil one, who seeks to destroy the works of God.
3. Persecution. The servants of God who have communicated his Word are also hated, and they are sought out with a view to their hurt. This is a characteristic of the confirmed sinner, which repeats itself over and over again in history. The world hates the servants of Christ because it hates their Master.
II. THE HARDNESS OF HEART PRODUCED BY CONTINUAL SIN.
1. Deliberate profanity. If the text is rightly interpreted, it describes a repeated action, performed with the greatest coolness and clearest intention. How different from that young king who rent his garments at the message from the book so mysteriously lost and found again!
2. Resolute disobedience. The treatment to which the roll was subjected showed how thoroughly the mind of the king was made up. And the remonstrances of his councillors were unheeded. Evidently the messages of God would be wasted upon such a king, and consequently his doom would be forthwith pronounced (Jer 36:30, Jer 36:31).
III. THE FOOLISHNESS OF THOSE WHO FIGHT AGAINST GOD. This is revealed in their methods. Here the burning of the book and the persecution of its authors are all that occurs to the infatuated king to do. But the prophet and his scribe are nowhere to be found, for “God hid them;” and the burnt manuscript appears in a second and enlarged edition. Persecution and the Index Expurgatorius have been potent allies of the truth they have been used to suppress. It is an unequal warfare when God is on one side and man on the other. In such a ease the truest wisdom is capitulation. God’s indictment against us is unanswerable, and there is no escaping his judgments. When such devices occur to the sinner, he may well fear for himself. Truly understood, these warnings are but the efforts of Divine love to awaken to repentance, and thus afford opportunity for its free and uninterrupted exercise.M.
Jer 36:26
The Lord hid them.
I. TO WHAT STRAITS THE CAUSE OF GOD IS SOMETIMES REDUCED! Those in high position are opposed to it, and its advocates and representatives have to seek concealment. No open ministry was, therefore, possible. Self-preservation had to be first attended to. There have been times when religion was tolerated, but as under apology; this was an instance of utter exclusion. How good men must have despaired and bad men triumphed! All that God could do for his servants seemed to be to hide them. At the same time, how easy it would be to miscalculate the moral power of the Word! Is not persecution better than languid indifference?
II. HOW HOPELESS THEIR EFFORTS WHO CONTEND WITH GOD! With seeming ease and yet mysterious skill, the secrets of nature are made to subserve his will. And even that which is, as it were, an extremitya last resourceis so mysteriously effected as to convey the impression of infinite skill and endless resources.
1. They are baffled at the very outset. There seems to have been some interposition of the Divine in making the concealment of the prophet and his companion so inscrutable; and it impressed men. All the means at their disposal were exhausted in their efforts to discover them, but in vain. It is:
2. With an apparent ease. It is but one move on the great chessboard, but it is effectual and sufficient. It is even conceivable that the pursued took no special pains to conceal themselves, but left it in the hand of him whom they served.
3. And with significant gentleness. Some grander deliverance he might have effected, but this is enough. And it simply prevents the wicked king and his court from adding further to their guilt. How thankful ought wicked men to be that they are not suffered to carry out all their evil designs! So God sometimes “prevents,” that he may not have to pursue and destroy.
III. HOW SECURE GOD‘S SERVANTS ARE WHEN HE UNDERTAKES FOR THEM! It is merely said he “hid them,” that their concealment was effectual and inviolate being understood without further words. Elijah (1Ki 17:2) and his successor (2Ki 6:1-33.) were so hidden. The Lord of the universe knows its every secret.
1. In temporal things. The children of God will not escape misfortune or sorrow. Persecutions are amongst the promises. But the true evil of evil will not reach them. They cannot know it. He hides them in his “secret place” until the storm and fury are overpast. Nay, in distress his tenderness will be the more conspicuous and manifest. “Hide me under the shadow of thy wings” (Psa 17:8); “I flee unto thee to hide me” (Psa 143:9). There is an inward, inaccessible peace, which is the gift of every true disciple (Joh 14:27).
2. In things spiritual. Isaiah spoke of the day when “a man shall be as an hiding place from the wind,” etc. (Isa 32:2). And we know that our “life is hid with Christ in God” (Col 3:3). When the unpardoned shall call upon the rocks to fall on them, and the hills to cover them from his wrath, they that believe shall be safe in the keeping of their Lord.
3. And this is so because the saints are precious in his sight. He keeps them as the apple of his eye. Not a hair of their head shall fall to the ground without their Father. They are the firstfruits of his Son’s agony and sacrifice, and bear his likeness. All the resources of his kingdom are held in readiness for their salvation.M.
Jer 36:27-32
The Word of God: wherein it can and wherein it cannot be destroyed.
I. WHEREIN IT CAN BE DESTROYED.
1. In its outward form and medium. The roll; inspired records; religious institutions and means of grace; individual believers and Churches.
2. As a vehicle of blessing to a man’s own soul. Jehoiakim deliberately cut off his own salvation, and, destroying the roll, he caused his name to be blotted out of the book of life. To him it brought no blessing. We can destroy the Word of God in this way for ourselves, by heedlessness, unbelief, disrespect, enmity.
II. WHEREIN IT CANNOT BE DESTROYED. Even over the material embodiment and vehicle of the Word shall we not believe that Providence watches? God restores, enlarges, multiplies his Word. But:
1. The spiritual Word cannot be destroyed. It is independent of stone, or parchment, or paper; is continually renewed by the Divine Spirit in its communications with the children of men. Even at the worst there is a “law written upon the heart.” It cannot be too strongly impressed upon men’s minds that, were all the Bibles and manuscripts in the world destroyed, God would restore his Word and continue to reveal himself; like that temple which, destroyed, would be raised in three days again.
2. The consequences of God’s Word, whether these be good or evil. What he willeth will be, and his Word stands sure. “Heaven and earth shall pass away, but my word shall not pass away,” etc.; i.e. what it foretells and declares will remain certain and will fulfil itself. It secures to the saint an indestructible life and inheritance, and to the sinner the reward of his transgression. The true escape from the thrcatenings of the Divine Word is not to destroy it, but to obey its teachings and yield ourselves to the discipline and grace of Christ.M.
HOMILIES BY S. CONWAY
Jer 36:1-32
Hearers of God’s Word.
This chapter brings before us an instructive variety of these hearers.
I. SUCH AS THE PROPHET. To him and such as he the Word of God came, and was received with reverent submission and diligently obeyed at all costs. They could say, “Speak, Lord; for thy servant heareth.”
II. SUCH AS THE PEOPLE GENERALLY. (Jer 36:10.) The mass seemed unaffected. We do not read of their being in any wise wrought upon by what they had heard. But there was an exception (Jer 36:11). Michaiah was really aroused, impressed, and alarmed. Often it is thus; the general congregation unmoved, but one here, one there, touched and led to God.
III. SUCH AS MICHAIAH. We have seen how it affected him. He could not keep it to himself, but went to tell the princes of it (Jer 36:12). He unfeignedly believed. Now, he came of a godly house. It was his grandfather who, in King Josiah’s day, had first received the book of the Law which had been found in the temple. Hilkiah the high priest gave it to him, knowing, no doubt, that it would be reverently dealt with. And so it was; for first he read it himself, and then read it aloud to the young king, and that led to the reformation which the king carried out. And the father of this Michaiah was a man of a like spirit. From the balcony of his house Baruch had read his book to the people; Michaiah’s father had lent him a pulpit. And it was this same man who, with two others, tried, but in vain, to stay the king’s hand when about to burn the book (verse 25). Hence Michaiah came of a godly stock. It is the training of such homes that more than aught else prepares and predisposes the heart to receive the Word of God.
IV. SUCH AS THE PRINCES. These are a very instructive group, (verses 11-26). They listened patiently to the Word, and gave it much attention. They were much moved, and desired to hear it over again exactly as it had been given, and so they sent for Baruch, and listened in like manner to him. They seriously deliberate, and resolve to go and warn the king; for that in all probability was their motive. They show affection to God’s servants, and desire to protect both them and the written Word. They go in to the king, notwithstanding they must have known the peril of so doing. And some of them endeavour to stay the king from his evil intent to destroy the book. But there they stop. The king’s rage overpower them, and they keep silence when they ought to utter strong protest. They are an illustration of “the fear of man which bringeth a snare.” How often the like cause leads to like unfaithfulness still!
V. SUCH AS THE KING. The words fix his attention, but they excite his rage and then they ensure his doom. He comes to hate both the Word and the writers of the Word, and he disregards the feeble remonstrances of its timid friends. Thus he seals his own destruction, as such ever do. We are hearers of the Word. To which class do we belong?C.
Jer 36:2
The written Word.
“Take thee a roll of a book, and write therein all the words that I have spoken unto thee” “This is the first recorded instance of the formation of a canonical book, and of the special purpose of its formation.” No doubt other prophets had committed to writing more or less of their teachingsthe quotations of one prophet from another, the later from the earlier, prove this; but here is the first record of any such act, and hence it has especial interest. It is the forerunner of all those several Scriptures which together form now the depository of our religion, and justify the well known saying of Chillingworth, “The Bible and the Bible only is the religion of Protestants.” For note
I. OUR RELIGION DEPENDS ON THE WRITTEN WORD. Great contempt has been poured on the idea of a “book revelation.” As if there were something even ridiculous in the idea of God revealing himself by means of a book. A recent missionary traveller (Gilmour) among the Mongols states that they feel the force of this objection very strongly, and that when the missionary holds up his little Bible as the revelation of God, it seems to them very absurd. But these people can claim distinguished companionship amongst our own countrymen. And in addition to the rejection of a book revelation at all, this particular book, the Bible, is objected to exceedingly. All manner of ridicule is poured on it, and there is scarce a single ground on which fault could be found with it which some one has not occupied. But in reply note
II. THE WRITTEN WORD IS, HOWEVER, NOT THE REVELATION BUT ONLY THE RECORD OF IT. It is not claimed for it to be more than this. God did not give to mankind a book, but he revealed himself to “holy men of old,” and especially through the Lord Jesus Christ. And this book is the record of that revelation. Hence the only question that concerns us isIs it a faithful record?
III. BUT SUCH A RECORD WAS ABSOLUTELY NECESSARY. For if the existence of God be allowed, and that it is his desire to reclaim men from their sin and to bring them back to himself, it may be asked:
1. How could this be done except by his revealing himself to men? They must be enabled to know him, and to know him in such manner as would be likely to move them in the direction desired.
2. But if it be granted that a revelation was a necessity, how could that revelation be of use to mankind at large unless it were put on record? For all events are related to time and space; they must have happenedGod’s revelation of himself amongst otherssomewhen and somewhere. But how, except by a record, could those who dwelt in other generations and in other parts of the world know of this revelation? But for that it may as well not have been.
3. And so long as the Divine ideas are conveyed to our mind, what does it matter about the means employed? All the magnificence of naturethe Alpine heights, the starry universe, etc.serve us only as they convey true and worthy ideas, as they wake up in us fit and appropriate thoughts. If they fail in this, they might as well not be so far as we are concerned. But there are many who never have opportunities of beholding the magnificence of naturetheir lives are one long round of sordid toil in scenes dark and squalid; and others who have such opportunities are too little educated to learn from them what they assuredly have to tell. The road that leads from nature up to nature’s God is a thinly travelled one; few go that way. But now, if by the written Word, which can be carried everywhere, perpetuated, multiplied, and is everywhere and at all times accessibleif by this there can be conveyed to the mind fit, true, and heart moving ideas about God, what an advantage this is! Instead of being a cause of scorn, it should awaken our gratitude.
4. And those features in this record which seem to some unworthy of its great mission, these really are of great service. No doubt there is much of homeliness and of trivial and seemingly insignificant detail in this record. It is a very plain, prosaic book in many parts. But is not this a great boon? Had God’s revelation of himself to us been accompanied by a blaze of splendour, with such manifestations of Divine power to the senses or to the intellect as some seem to desire, the revelation would have been lost in the record; no one would look at the picture, their attention being so much occupied with the setting. Hence it is good for us that we live so long after the times of the Bible. It is expedient for us that Christ has gone away. For in proportion to men’s nearness to those times “events having God in them took a more forcible hold upon their mind than God in the events.” The atmosphere of time is needed in order to our right viewing of the marvellous facts of the Bible.
IV. OUR ONE QUESTION ISIS THE RECORD FAITHFUL?.
1. As to the facts themselvesin their main substance and meaning. This question is quite apart from inspiration. Nothing but honesty and intelligence are asked for here. Of course, if any start with the assumption that the supernatural is not, and hence miracles are by their very nature impossible, and the belief of them absurd, such a one will refuse all credence to this record. But first let his assumption be proved ere doubt be thrown on either the honesty or the intelligence of the writers of the Bible.
2. As to the interpretation and meaning of the facts they record. “Just as on gazing at a picture of Raphael’s we should rejoice to have at hand a companion who had familiarized himself with the spirit of the great artist and acquired an insight into his genius, to furnish us with such brief notices as might assist us to a comprehension of the profounder ideas expressed by the painting, for want of which it would lose very much of its intellectual meaning; so with the memoirs of Christ before us, as the spiritual revelation of God to our religious sense, we require, in order to adequate instruction and profit, the comments of those who shall be qualified to point it out to our duller vision. What poets are to the natural exhibition of God in his works, these men will be to the moral exhibition of God in his Son.” Now, that the sacred writers answer to this need is shown by the fact that they “commend the truth to every man’s conscience in the sight of God.” In this commendation to our conscience is the evidence that they have read aright the facts they record. And to this we may fearlessly appeal. We do not assert this of men’s theologies and divinity schemestoo many of them outrage the conscience and trouble the moral sense; but we do assert it of the great verities of the faith, as taught in the Scriptures, and of the doctrines which the Bible as a whole plainly teaches.
“Within this ample volume lies
The mystery of mysteries.
Happiest they of human race
To whom their God has given grace
To read, to fear, to hope, to pray,
To lift the latch and force the way;
And better had they ne’er been born
Than read to doubt or read to scorn.”
Cf. on this whole subject Miall’s ‘Bases of Belief.’C.
Jer 36:3
It may be.
We can understand the prophet thus speaking, but how can there be anything uncertain or contingent with God? And yet it is he who here speaks and says, “It may be.” We are accustomed to say, “God knows all the past, and all the present, and all the future (cf. Isa 46:9-11). Reason and Scripture alike seem to say that there can be nothing probable with God. But yet this is his word. Why does he thus speak? Perhaps
I. BECAUSE THERE WAS NO LAW, NO DECREE, AGAINST THE PEOPLE‘S REPENTANCE. He had made no such law, and man had not. There is no decree of reprobation.
II. IT MAY BE CONSISTENT, AFTER ALL, WITH THE TRUTH OF THINGS FOR GOD THUS TO SPEAK, THOUGH WE CANNOT SEE HOW. We infer certain conclusions from what we read and learn about God, and these conclusions seem to deny the possibility of there being any “it may be” with him. But we may be wrong after all, and the fact that he does thus speak lends to the suspicion that we are.
III. BECAUSE IT WOULD BE ILL FOR US WERE HE TO REVEAL THE CERTAINTIES OF THINGS. If they were to be such as we would desire, we should cease to labour for them. If otherwise, we should sit down in despair. But God desires us to labour and pray, and therefore hides the future from our eyes. Presumption and despair are both great evils; therefore to prevent them, God speaks after the manner of men, if not after the manner of God.
IV. BECAUSE HE INTENDS HIS “MAY BE” TO BECOME “SHALL BE.” He would have us fellow workers with him, and therefore he encourages our efforts, but hides from us be that which would lead us to think them unnecessary. And probably the “may be” will become “shall be,” though not at the time nor in the manner we expect. Let us, therefore, be ever cheered forward when God says, “It may be.”C.
Jer 36:23
The indestructible Word.
The king’s knife and fire did what they could to destroy the prophet’s word, but with what result this chapter shows. The king was Jehoiakim; the prophet, Jeremiah; the word, his written prophecies. It was necessary that these should be written down. The army of Babylon was already in the land, and drawing near to the doomed city of Jerusalem, if they had not already captured it for the first time. There was no hope of successful resistance. Therefore, for a testimony when all that had been foretold came to pass, and for a solace and warning to that and to all coming generations, it was necessary that the twenty-three years’ witness which the prophet had borne against that guilty nation should be put on record. Jeremiah was “shut up,” whether by his own will, or the word of the Lord, or for fear of his enemies, we cannot certainly say; but Baruch, who seems to have been to Jeremiah as Timothy to Paul, was commanded to write these prophecies, and then, on the “fasting day,” to read them in the hearing of all the people. He did so. One of his hearers, alarmed and troubled, hastened away to the council of the princes, and told them what he had heard. Baruch was sent for, and declared again what he had before read to the people. The book was too terrible to show to the king; they therefore commanded that it and its author should be concealed, whilst they went in to the king to announce its fearful contents. A third time these prophecies were recited, hut the king demanded that the book itself should be read to him. But when brought and the reading had begun, the angry king had no patience to listen beyond the first three or four leaves, but snatching it from the hand of the reader, he vented his rage upon it by cutting and hacking it with his knife, and then, to make short work of it, cast it, in spite of the horror-stricken entreaties of his princes, into the burning coals before him, where it was utterly consumed. Then he commands, but in vain, for “the Lord hid them,” that Baruch and Jeremiah be arrested; but the Lord commands that these prophecies be written again, which was done, with the doom of the king added, and “beside them many like words.” But this King Jehoiakim, in his dealing with the Word of God, and in its dealing with him, has had many successors. He is the type of
I. THOSE WHO ARE IMPATIENT WITH THE WORD OF GOD. Jehoiakim only heard three or four leaves read, when he put a stop to the reading altogether in the foolish way we have seen. He would not hear the whole. Did any man ever destroy the Bible who knew it wholly? Many have thrown it into the fire who have heard or read a part only. The difficulty is in the “three or four leaves.” How many stumble because they won’t read on!
II. THOSE WHO BECOME VERY ANGRY WITH THE BIBLE. To men of this king’s stamp the Bible has not one word of comfort, commendation, or hope. It is all full of thunder and storm. It is a dreadful book to the impenitent, No wonder that he snatches it from the reader’s hand, and hacks at it with his knife, and then flings it into the blazing fire. Yes; be like this king, and you will do as he did, and be done unto as he.
III. THOSE WHO STRIVE TO DESTROY THE BIBLE.
1. Some would only partly do this. They admit a large amount of good in the book; they only desire to cut out what they think is otherwise. Theologians use their penknives. They practically put out of the Bible what makes against their favourite ideas. Science seems to be forever at this miserable cutting. Philosophy is equally guilty; but sin is worst of all. It loves not the hard things the Bible will keep saying against it; therefore it would cut them outonly it cannot.
2. There are those who would destroy the book altogether. What Bible burnings there have been! The histories of pagan and Romish persecutions are full of them. Are there none now? What is the difference between such burning and utter disregard of the book as too many are guilty of? If we trample it underfoot, in our hearts, our lips, our lives, how could burning it be any worse?
IV. THOSE WHO FIND THE BIBLE TOO STRONG FOR THEM. “O Galilaean, thou hast conquered!” said the Emperor Julian shortly before he died. And that has been the confession in regard to the Word of God on the part of all those who have tried to destroy it (verse 30). The Word of God can neither be bound nor burned. It has been cut, cast into flames, proscribed, branded, corrupted, and treated with every conceivable form of opprobrium; but here it is today, a living and mighty factor in the lives of the foremost men and nations throughout the whole world. And the ungodly who practically seek to destroy it for themselves, they will find they cannot do this. Its truths will come back, its teachings reassert themselves, and will add beside “many like words”C.
Jer 36:26
The Lord’s hidden ones.
“But the Lord hid them.” He has many such, and in all manner of unthought of places. If we read the history of the world aright, how continually God is bringing forth his hidden ones to render service to their fellow men! “Oh how great is thy goodness, which thou hast laid up for them that fear thee!” Think of some of these hidden ones.
I. SUCH AS THE PROPHET HERE TOLD OF. And how God has hidden his people from the rage of men! “In the secret of his tabernacle shall he hide me.” Let the records of the martyr Churches in Rome, Switzerland, and wherever God’s saints have been persecutedlet all these tell how he has often hidden his servants. Moses was hidden three months when an infant; then again with Jethro in Midian afterwards. How God hid David again and again from Saul!
II. THOSE DESTINED FOR GREAT SERVICE. How often, when a Church seems to have been brought to its lowest, God raises up some one who is the means of reviving it! David amongst the sheepfolds. Gideon and the judges. Our Lord at Nazareth. In all unlikeliest places God has his hidden ones, whom in due time he will manifest to the surprise and joy of his Church.
III. SUCH AS ARE NOT YET IN THE VISIBLE CHURCH. Amongst those whom we deem outside the Church, God has his chosen, whom one day he will call. Who, looking on the murderers of St. Stephen, would have thought that amongst them God had one of his choicest servants? This is the dispensation, not of universal conversionthat is to comebut of calling out those who shall be the instruments of the universal ingathering. God is blessing his Church that “his way may be known upon earth.” etc. We are therefore to despair of no nation, community, class, family, or neighbourhood. In all God has his hidden ones.
“O grace, into unlikeliest hearts
It is thy wont to come.”
IV. THE BLESSED DEAD. There is to be a manifestation of the sons of God. Meanwhile their “life is hid with Christ in God.” “Wherefore comfort one another with these words.”C.
Jer 36:28
Disaster not defeat.
What dismay must have filled the minds of those who saw the book destroyed, and of those who heard of itBaruch, Jeremiah, and others!
I. IT WAS GREAT DISASTER. The book was most precious. See its gracious intent. See how it had already moved many for good. What might not be expected from it?
II. AND IT SEEMED IRRETRIEVABLE. There was no copy of it kept. No human memory could reproduce it. The word had not sunk into the hearts of the people so as to render it no longer needed.
III. BUT THE DISASTER WAS NOT DEFEAT. God interposed, commanded the prophet to write again, enabled him to do so, supplied him with many more like words.
IV. BY MEANS OF IT MORE GOOD WAS WROUGHT. What endorsement of the Word did its remarkable reproduction supply! How it would show the vanity of all human rage against the Divine will! How the faith of the godly would be strengthened, whilst the daring of the wicked would be rebuked!
V. AND THIS INSTANCE IS BUT ONE OUT OF MYRIADS MORE. Read the history of the Church, and see how perpetually out of seeming disaster God has brought real good and increased good. And so in our own personal histories, providential and spiritual alike. “Trust thou in the Lord at all times.”C.
HOMILIES BY D. YOUNG
Jer 36:3
God’s eye to every possibility.
I. THE THING WHICH GOD GREATLY DESIRES. That man may repent, thus enabling him to forgive. He ever has his eyes on the ways of evil men, noticing the slightest sign of their weariness in them and disposition to leave them. This is always a thing to be suspected and prepared for. That any man should suddenly become uneasy and hesitating in the midst of evil courses is nothing wonderful when we consider that man was made for goodness and holiness. Thus what else should we look for than frequent expressions of desire on the part of God that man should again be found in the right way?
II. GOD LEAVES NOTHING UNDONE TO BRING THIS ABOUT. There is something even touching about this word, “it may be.” As if it were allowed that probabilities all pointed in one unfavourable direction, but still not one of them was such a certainty that the contrary possibility should be excluded. As the common proverb says, “While there’s life there’s hope.” Every instance of a rejected appeal and an abused prophet lessens the probability, but it does not destroy the possibility. God goes on sending his prophets. Each man comes with his own personality, his own peculiar emphasis, and thus with evermore the same message there is variety both in the messenger and the form of his message. And at last, when the messenger gets shut up, his words are written down and transmitted by another. We cannot get rid of the Word of God. There are a thousand channels to the heart of man, and the violent stoppage of some may only result in the enlargement and efficacy of others.
III. THERE IS AN EXAMPLE FOR US IN GOSPEL WORK. Scripture shows us God using many ways in trying to get at the human heart. Surely the great principle in this matter is that every way is right if it be not wrong in itself. We must not do evil that good may come; but we must be all things to all men that we may save some.
IV. THERE MAY BE ADDED GUILT TO THOSE REJECTING THE GOSPEL. It was one of the worst elements in the guilt of Israel that it had been indifferent to so many appeals and such various ones. God did not send these people into exile upon one refusal or even upon a few. There was sufficient intimation of his demands and his designs. And we may take it that there always is sufficient intimation. With the constant extension of gospel effort and the wider diffusion of Bibles, tracts, and all sorts of printed agencies, we may say that each generation gets more of light than the one before it. Indeed, we may lay it down as a general principle that when all the opportunities of every human being are summed up, it will be found that he is without any excuse for pleading ignorance or doubt as to God’s demands.Y.
Jer 36:6
Things new and old.
I. THE OLD. The message itself was old. It had been proclaimed before in parts and on different occasions. There was not, indeed, opportunity for anything new. The audience also was to some extent old. But then let it always be understood that God speaks according to the necessities of the case, not according to the itching ear of man ever clamouring for novelty and relief from ennui. “If they hear not Moses and the prophets, neither wilt they be persuaded though one rose from the dead.” There may come a time in every man’s life, when it is not the new but the old and neglected or misunderstood that will prove the necessity of the soul.
II. THE NEW.
1. The messenger. Not Jeremiah, but Baruch; not a prophet, but a prophet’s deputy; not a word spoken, but a word read; not a part of Jeremiah’s utterances, but the whole, so that people might have it brought home to them how much they had neglected. Old truth appears in new framework and new relations, so that it may arrest people who have become indifferent to the old associations. There was a time when Jeremiah’s face was fresh, and curiosity would make people stop to hear what this babbler might say. But after hearing him often, they ceased to heed him. Then Baruch comes forward, and words that were an exact repetition of words heard before got a flavour of novelty.
2. The occasion. The fasting day. Read Isa 58:1-14, carefully to discover the avowed purpose and yet utter uselessness of the fasting day in Israel. The people met together to acknowledge their sins, to punish their bodies, to please God, to avert his displeasure. It might, therefore, be assumed that then, if ever, they were in a state prepared to listen to the volume of one great prophet’s utterance. If anything was to be got out of seizing the best available occasion, then surely it was to be got here. Thus we learn how occasion adds responsibility to utterance; responsibility both for him who speaks and those who hear. These people were not stopped in the street or the market; their homes were not invaded by prophetic messages; they had no pretence for saying they were interfered with. They put themselves in Baruch’s way. His work, as reader of Jeremiah’s prophecies, was in exact harmony with what ought to have been the feelings and desires of his audience.
3. The audience. That audience, as we have said above, was to some extent old, but to some extent also it would be new. A new message to some people in Jerusalem, and quite new doubtless to the bulk of those who came from the cities of Judah to Jerusalem. The whole proceeding helps us to see how valuable the public reading of the Scriptures may be. For old as they are, with so much in them that savours of vanished ages and customs, their have, nevertheless, to do with perennial wants, miseries, and possibilities.Y.
Jer 36:23
Burning the Word of the Lord.
I. THE KING‘S MOTIVES IN THIS ACT. Perhaps he was not conscious of any distinct set of motives. He was but a despot, and despots are in many things like spoiled children; they act not from any clear reason, good or bad, so much as from the caprice of the moment. If this act had been a singularity of Jehoiakim’s, there would have been less need to attend to it, but unhappily it only illustrates a whole series of acts by those occupying stations of power among men. Putting Jeremiah in prison, burning Baruch’s roll, slaying the innocents at Bethlehem, putting apostles in prison, and all the long list of martyrdoms,what are these but the same essential act all through? Jehoiakim would have been in full sympathy with Roman Catholic priests burning the Scriptures in translations understood of the common people. Jehoiakim was a man buttressed with privileges, pampered with privileges; and here he had a document forced upon his ears which contained assertions by no means compatible with the continuance of his privileges. And there was one thing he could dohe could get rid of the offensive document. He stands before us a great example of thoseand how many there are!who, in their eagerness to get rid of an unpleasant subject, take the first means that comes to hand for getting rid of it.
II. LOOK AT THE ACT IN THE LIGHT OF HISTORY. Jehoiakim burnt Baruch’s roll, but he did not destroy Jeremiah’s prophecies; nor did he nullify the truth of Jeremiah’s predictions; nor did he stop other prophetic utterances. If Jehoiakim can, he may burn, not only Baruch’s roll, but Baruch and Jeremiah as well. Suppose this done; yet Ezekiel, Daniel, Haggai, Zechariah, Malachi, and probably many more, of whose words we know nothing, have to be reckoned with. This is the peculiar folly of men like Jehoiakim, that they perform acts monumental of their folly. Jehoiakim might have quietly said, “If these words are true, then we cannot make them false; and if they be false, time will show their falsity, and bring to shame both the dictator and the writer of them.” Instead of acting thus with dignified endurance, Jehoiakim, in burning the roll, challenged the attention not only of his own people but of all ages. He did what there was no sort of need for him to do. It may be saidWhy not apply the same line of remark to Luther burning the pope’s bull? To this the answer is obvious, that Luther’s act was a message of renunciation, a summons of the papacy’s bondslaves to freedom, an act of sublime trust in God. Looked at from the point of view given in the present, it is seen to have been an inspiration. But what did Jehoiakim’s act amount to? Only empty bravado. He had nothing to fear from men. Luther did something when he burnt the bull. Jehoiakim did nothing but proclaim his own shame, and advertise the glory of that God over against whose throne his paltry throne had been set up.Y.
Jer 36:26
Jehovah hiding his servants.
I. THE NEED OF SUCH INTERPOSITION. Baruch and Jeremiah had already been told by the princes to hide (verse 19); but what was any effort purely of their own likely to avail? Indeed, it is only as we appreciate the uselessness of a purely human effort for this purpose that we shall see the need of a Divine intervention. God does not mean miracles and special providences to do the work of man’s prudence. But when it is made evident that man can do little or nothing, then God’s action appears manifest and admonitory. It may be too much to say that this action of God was intended as an answer to Jehoiakim’s audacity in burning the roll; but it was an answer nevertheless.
II. THE MANNER OF THE INTERPOSITION. This is left untold. Either Jeremiah could not explain the manner of his hiding, or it was purposely left unexplained to heighten the impressiveness of the fact. It may have been through a marvellous combination of human kindness and sympathy, such as showed a Divine directing hand; or there may have been miracle. God is an effectual hider. How much there is hidden away in the very things we see, so that knowledge may be kept from all but the humble and obedient! God could not be the revealer that he is, unless he were also an effectual hider. The great end was gained if people of the right sort in Jerusalem were made to feel that this hiding was in no sort the work of man, and could only be explained by the intervention of a higher power.
III. THE RESULT OF THE INTERPOSTION. Jeremiah was hidden and preserved because his work was not yet done. HIS words had to be put down in writing; and it is interesting to notice that the second copy was an improvement on the first. All that was in the first was also in the second, and many like words were added. God never does wonders for the mere sake of doing wonders. When he hides his servants, or delivers them from prison, it is soon made manifest that he had a purpose in view. We have to remember this in reading such a book as the Acts of the Apostles. Stephen is left to be stoned to death, while Peter has an angel to take him out of prison. The fact was Stephen had the greatest work of his life to do in the hour of his death. “Man is immortal till his work is done.” Whatsoever God has clearly given us to do, we must go on with it boldly, yet prudently, sure that he will take care of us who hid Jeremiah in the hour of his danger.Y.
Fuente: The Complete Pulpit Commentary
Jer 36:1. And it came to pass, &c. It is uncertain whether what is related in this chapter happened during the siege of Jerusalem by Nebuchadnezzar, (for this city was besieged in the 4th year of Jehoiakim: see 2Ki 24:1-2.) or after the siege, when Jehoiakim was escaped from the hand of Nebuchadnezzar. One would imagine from what follows, particularly from Jer 36:9 that it happened at the end of the fourth year; which would lead one to suppose that Nebuchadnezzar was retired. Jeremiah says nothing of the siege, and he orders Baruch to read his prophesies before an assembly of the people, who came to Jerusalem out of their cities, Jer 36:6 which denotes a time of joy, and a grand festival. See Calmet.
Fuente: Commentary on the Holy Bible by Thomas Coke
SECOND DIVISION
Historical Presentation of the most important Events from the fourth year of Jehoiakim to the close of the Prophets ministry
(B. C. 605570)
Jeremiah 36-44
To the collection of discourses and its appendices are now added historical sections. These contain, with the exception of the beginning and the conclusion, a continuous historical narrative. The beginning is formed by a single but highly important event of the fourth and fifth years of Jehoiakims reignthe writing out of the prophecies (Jeremiah 36) The conclusion (ch 44) is formed by a portion, which, after a pause embracing 1618 years, gives an account of Jeremiahs last appearance, in the midst of the people even in Egypt still devoted to idolatry. From Jeremiah 37 to Jeremiah 43 the events are continuously narrated, which occurred from the beginning of Zedekiahs reign up to the arrival of the fugitive remnant in Egypt. It should be remarked that the presentation begins indeed with the beginning of Zedekiahs reign, but hurries rapidly over the first ten years (Jer 37:1-2) and begins the connected narrative with the imprisonment of the prophet, which took place in the tenth year of this king. The thread on which the events are hung is the personal experience of the prophet; the behaviour of the people towards the Lords servant being both the ground and consequence of the fate which befel them. The single portions of this section may be arranged as follows:
A. The events before the capture of Jerusalem, chh. 3638
I. The writing out of the prophecies in the fourth year of Jehoiakim, Jeremiah 36
1. The command and first writing, Jer 36:1-8.
2. The reading to the people, Jer 36:9-18.
3. The reading to the king, Jer 36:19-26.
4. The prediction of punishment to Jehoiakim and the second writing, Jer 36:27-32.
II. The events in the tenth and eleventh years of Zedekiah, chh. 37 and 38
1. The embassy of the king and the imprisonment of the prophet in its first and second stages, Jeremiah 37
2. Jeremiah in the pit (third stage of imprisonment), his conference with the king and confinement in the court of the guard (fourth stage of imprisonment), Jeremiah 38
B. THE EVENTS AFTER THE CAPTURE OF JERUSALEM, CHH. 3944
1. Jeremiah liberated from the court of the guard, and delivered to Gedaliah, Jer 38:28 to Jer 39:14.
2. Appendix to Jer 39:1-14; the promise made to Ebed-melech the Cushite, Jer 39:15-18.
3. Jeremiah liberated in Ramah and delivered the second time to Gedaliah, Jer 40:1-6.
4. The gathering of the people under Gedaliah, Jer 40:7-16.
5. The murder of Gedaliah and its consequences, Jeremiah 41.
6. The hypocritical inquiry, Jer 42:1-6.
7. The unwelcome answer, Jer 42:7-22.
8. The flight to Egypt, Jer 43:1-7.
9. Jeremiah in Tahpanhes, Jer 43:8-13.
10. Jeremiah at the festival of the Queen of Heaven in Pathros. The last act of his prophetic ministry, ch 44.
a. The charge against the obstinately idolatrous people, Jer 44:1-14
b. The replication of the people, Jer 44:15-19.
c. The recapitulation of the prophet, Jer 44:20-30.
. The refutation of the peoples assertions, Jer 44:20-23.
. The positive prediction of severest punishment, Jer 44:24-30.
A. The events before the capture of Jerusalem,(chh. 3638)
I. The writing out of the prophecies in the fourth year of Jehoiakim(Jeremiah 36)
1.The Command and the first writing
Jer 36:1-8
1And it came to pass in the fourth year of Jehoiakim the son of Josiah king of2Judah, that this word came unto Jeremiah from the Lord, saying, Take thee a roll of a book, and write therein1 all the words that I have spoken unto thee against Israel, and against Judah, and against all the nations, from the day I spake unto3thee, from the days of Josiah, even unto this day. It may be that the house of Judah will hear all the evil which I purpose to do unto them; that they may return4every man from his evil way; that I may forgive their iniquity and their sin. Then Jeremiah called Baruch the son of Neriah: and Baruch wrote from the mouth of Jeremiah all the words of the Lord, which he had spoken unto him, upon a roll of5a book. And Jeremiah commanded Baruch, saying, I am shut up [hindered]; I6cannot go into the house of the Lord. Therefore go thou, and read in the roll, which thou hast written from my mouth, the words of the Lord in the ears of the people in the Lords house upon the fasting day: and also thou shalt read them in7the ears of all Judah that come out of their cities. It may be they will present their supplication2 before the Lord, and will return every one from his evil way: for great is the anger and the fury that the Lord hath pronounced against this8people. And Baruch the son of Neriah did according to all that Jeremiah the prophet commanded him, reading in the book the words of the Lord in the Lords [Jehovahs] house.
EXEGETICAL AND CRITICAL
In the fourth year of Jehoiakims reign Jeremiah receives the command to commit to writing the prophecies delivered by him from the beginning of his prophetic ministry (therefore for twenty-three years). The fourth year of Jehoiakim, as frequently shown already, was a turning-point both in the political world and in Jeremiahs ministry. It was then that in consequence of the battle of Carchemish both the call of Nebuchadnezzar to universal dominion was decided, and also the question, who were to be the northern executors of the judgment on Judah, so often predicted by the prophet. It was now clear that they would be the Chaldeans under Nebuchadnezzar. The way to Palestine and beyond was open to them. Their arrival was to be expected after a very brief interval. It was the last moment when Israel could still propitiate the Lord by sincere penitence, and avert the threatening danger. To determine Israel to make use of the last gracious respite thus granted a last attempt was to be made by the presentation of Jeremiahs prophecies as a whole. They were now to hear at once, and in a concentrated form, what they had been hearing piece-meal in the course of twenty-three years, and that a powerful effect might be expected from the total impression, is seen from Jer 36:16. Jeremiah now, to discharge his exalted commission, dictates the words of Jehovah to his faithful Baruch, and commands him to read what he has written to the assembled people on the occasion of a fast-day, since he himself, Jeremiah, is hindered from being present.
Jer 36:1-3. And it came to pass their sin. From the period before the fourth year of Jehoiakim, we find in the book of our prophet as we have it at present, chh. 2; 36; 710; 1113; 1417; 1821; 1114; Jer 22:1-23; Jeremiah 23; Jeremiah 26. Chh. 25 and Jer 46:1-12; Jeremiah 47; Jer 49:33 are also to be reckoned in here, since they certainly precede the writing, which extended into the fifth-year of Jehoiakim (Jer 36:9). Chh. 30. and 31. also belong here chronologically, but in subject they form a by itself (comp. Jer 30:2), and cannot have been a part of the book here meant, which consisted only of minatory prophecies. The first writing however did not, according to Jer 36:32, contain all these passages, at least not in their present extent. The view of Hitzig, that Jeremiah was not to write out the discourses for the first time, but only from the scattered leaves to compile them into a book, because the former would not have been possible even for the most retentive memory, has been well refuted by Graf from Hitzigs own point of view. From my own point of view I remark that the same supernatural factor which operated in the production of the prophecies must have acted also in their reproduction (comp. Joh 14:26). Here neither the much nor the little enters into consideration, nor must we lay too much weight on the similarity of the prophecies, for even the variations of the theme have their specific object and occasion, and could not be arbitrarily altered.
It is remarkable that the expression , apart from Psa 40:8, occurs only in Jeremiah and later writers (Eze 2:9; Eze 3:1; Zec 5:1-2), Psalms 40, however, as is well known, is ascribed by many to Jeremiah. But comp. Isa 34:4. Hengstenberg, Beitrge II., S. 494 sqq.Leyrer in Herz. R.-Enc., XIV., S. 18.
Jer 36:3. It may be, etc. It is not expressly said, but may be understood, that the words of Jehovah were to be read after being written, as the effects mentioned could not be attributed to the mere writing, and so Jeremiah understood it, Jer 36:6-8.That before they may return is difficult. We should expect and they will return, (comp. Jer 26:3). The prophet however distinguishes a nearer and a more remote object. The first is that they hear, not in a physical sense, for that was not problematic, but in a spiritual sense, i. e., in the sense of marking, observing, taking to heart. Comp. Jer 7:13; Jer 25:3-4, etc. The more remote and properly main object, to which the proclaiming and the marking were related only as means, was that they should be converted.
Jer 36:4-8. Then Jeremiah in Jehovahs house. Respecting Baruch comp. Jer 32:12. The reason why Jeremiah did not write himself is not necessarily that he could not. From Jer 32:10; Jer 51:60 on the contrary it seems to follow that Jeremiah was well able to write. At least it is not apparent why in these passages it should not be said that Jeremiah dictated, since such a minute statement would well accord with the particularity of his style elsewhere. It may however easily be conceived that in the discharge of so great a task, the aid of a writer to take the mechanical part, was a necessity to the prophet. As the reading, according to Jer 36:9, did not take place till the ninth month of the fifth year of Jehoiakim, the writing occupied nearly a year.Shut up (). As, according to Jer 36:19; Jer 36:26, Jeremiah and Baruch were able to hide themselves, this cannot mean imprisoned as it may well do in Jer 33:1; Jer 39:15. Jeremiah was therefore only detained or hindered. By what we have no means of ascertaining.And read in the roll. Comp. Deu 17:19; Neh 8:8; Neh 8:18.Upon the fasting day. The prophet does not mean either the regular yearly fast, which was observed in the seventh month (Lev 16:29; Lev 23:27), nor does he expect in the ninth month several (extraordinary) fasts, so that we should translate on a fast-day. The absence of the article is no more emphatic here than in Jer 3:2; Jer 6:16, etc.Were the ordinary fast meant in Jer 36:6, and an extraordinary fast-day in Jer 36:9, as many of the older commentators suppose, we cannot conceive why only the second reading had results, but the first passed away without a trace.
Jer 36:7. They will present. Comp. Jer 37:20; Jer 42:2 coll. Jer 38:26; Jer 42:9; Dan 9:18; Dan 9:20, where we find the Hiphil. The expression is evidently a stronger form of come before thee (Psa 79:11; Psa 88:3; Psa 119:170 coll. Job 34:28) in so far as it involves the idea of humble petitioning, and at the same time the collateral idea of prevailing, being heard. For that which falls down before one, can as little remain unobserved as that which comes before one.And will return. The prophet presupposes that the words of Jehovah will render clear to the people above all the necessity of repentance, and that accordingly their prayer will above all have reference to power for the fulfilment of this indispensable condition. He also hopes that this effect will be produced by the reading, as by this the greatness of Gods anger will be brought vividly before the minds of the people, and must produce a wholesome fear in them. In Jer 36:8 the accomplishment of the task is reported in general. The particulars follow. Comp. Hitzig in loc.
HOMILETICAL AND PRACTICAL
1. On Jer 36:2. The object of the writing was not only that litera scripta manet (Cramer: the mouth speaks only to those who are present, but the pen to the absent; the mouth speaks only to the present hours and times, the pen many hundred years afterwards also. Comp. Exo 34:27; Deu 10:4-5; Deu 17:18; Isa 30:8; Hab 2:2), but also to collect all the single lightning strokes into one grand prophetic tempest. Moreover, it is a matter of course that the written word was of special use, not only to posterity, but also to the contemporaries in so far as it rendered possible continued study, repeated quiet contemplation, and careful comparison. Jeremiah certainly prevented no one from taking copies of his book.
2. On Jer 36:4. Did Jeremiah hold such a relation to the Spirit of God as Baruch to Jeremiah when dictating? Then it was a matter of indifference to whom the dictation was made. Then a Saul would do as well as a Samuel, if he could only write. The best writer would be the most chosen instrument. There was no mingling of the individuality of the prophet except in the MS., and that is lost to us with the original. All prophetic writings must have the same type as to form and purport, which, as is well known, is so little the case that according to the saying of Buffon, le stylecest lhomme, the portrait of a prophet might almost be drawn from his style.
3. On Jer 36:5. Gods word is not bound; 2Ti 2:9. Paul for example wrote his most beautiful epistles from prison, as those to the Galatians, the Ephesians, the Philippians, the Colossians, to Philemon, and the second to Timothy. Cramer.
4. On Jer 36:14. It is a good state of things when rulers ask for Gods Word, and cannot be answered or helped promptly and quickly enough to the fulfilment of their purpose. So it was a joy to Paul that he could tell Agrippa what the Lord had done for his soul, and his heart yearned after Agrippa, Festus and all those around them. Zinzendorf.
5. On Jer 36:16. When a true servant of God gets his superiors so far that they hear him, he may surely not doubt, that he will also bring them to obedience. It is then not his, but the Lords affair. Zinzendorf.
6. On Jer 36:23. The higher the enemies of God are, the more dangerous; the greater, the more bitterly opposed to the work of the Lord, and the general patience with respect to the wickedness and unrighteousness of men, has certainly given something special to the . Procul a Jove procul a fulmine. Zinzendorf.
7. On Jer 36:23. Locus maxime principalis in prsenti hoc textu est de combustione sacrorum librorum, quale fatum illi experti sunt non tantum Jeremiah 36, verum etiam 1Ma 1:59 sub Antiocho Epiphane; nec non tempore Diocleliani, qui et ipse multa bibliorum sacrorum exemplaria undiquaque conquisita comburi jussit; quorum vestigiis insistere non dubitarunt Pontifices romani et prsertim Leo X. qui anno 1520 binos legatos emisit ad Fridericum Sapienlem, postulantes ab ipso, ut libros Lutheri combureret Quid hodie Jesuit de librorum combustione, qui a Lutheranis eduntur, sentiant, peculiari scripto Gretserus aperuit, quod de hoc argumento consarcinavit de jure et more prohibendi, expurgandi et abolendi libros hreticos et noxios. Ingolst. 1603, 40). Frster.
8. On Jer 36:25. When Johns head was in question, Herod did not understand how he could resist his magnates. When Daniel is to go into the lions den, Darius has not the heart to refuse his princes. When Jeremiah is to be delivered up, Zedekiah says with great modesty to his princes: the king can do nothing against you (Jer 38:5). But when anything evil is to be done, the rulers can insist on having their own way. Here we have an instance: he hearkened not unto them. Zinzendorf.
9. On Jer 36:26. Dominus eos abscondidisse dicilur, quaratione olim Eliam (1 Reg. xvii. 2 sqq. et xvii. 12), nec non Elisum (2 Reg. vi.), itemque Athanasium et Augustinum et nostro tempore Lutherum abscondidit. Frster.
10. On Jer 36:27. [Here is a sublime specimen of the triumph of Gods Word, when repressed by the power, and burnt by the rage of this world, whether it be in the suppression of the Scriptures, or in preventing their circulation, or in casting copies of them into the fire, or in the imprisonment and martyrdom of Gods preachers. That Word rises more gloriously out of all its persecutions. Wordsworth.S. R. A.]
HOMILETICAL AND PRACTICAL
1. On Jer 36:2-3. Sermon at a Bible Society Anniversary. The blessing of the written word. 1. That which it has in common with the spoken word (Jer 36:3): preparation of the heart for the reception of salvation. 2. That which it brings in distinction from the written Word: (a) it is present for every one: (b) it is present at every time and at every place: (c) it is present in all its parts (comparison).
2. On Jer 36:21-32. The majesty of the Word. 1. The power, which the word exercises. 2. The independence, which it maintains. 3. The self-verification which it continually effects. Sermons in Berlin by Fr. Wilh. Krummacher. Berlin, 1849.
3. On Jer 36:24. [The guilt of indifference to the divine threatenings. It involves: 1, contempt of God; 2, unbelief, making God a liar; 3, extreme hardness of heart. Payson.S. R. A.]
Footnotes:
[1]Jer 36:2. for (comp. rems. on Jer 10:1) as is evident from Jer 36:4; Jer 36:29. In however has the meaning of against, as we see from Jer 36:3, all the evil.
[2]Jer 36:7.Naegelsb.: Their supplication will come (prevail) before Jehovah.]
Fuente: A Commentary on the Holy Scriptures, Critical, Doctrinal, and Homiletical by Lange
CONTENTS
The Church is here taught by writing, as the Prophet had before been commissioned by preaching, the same solemn truths. The effect of inattention is here set forth as the same.
Fuente: Hawker’s Poor Man’s Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
I pray the Reader to take particular notice of what the Lord saith by his servant the Prophet, in this last verse, of the may be that they would attend. As faith cometh by hearing, this seems to be the great inlet to the mind. And although the word is heard to little purpose until the Lord gives the word; yet we find many blessed instances, where the Lord hath blessed an attendance on the means of grace. It may be our mercy to be found waiting at the gates of wisdom. It will be our condemnation if we be found not.
Fuente: Hawker’s Poor Man’s Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
Jehoiakim’s Penknife
Jer 36:22-25
Jehoiakim sends for the roll; it is brought; he commands it to be read. But when only two or three columns have been read to him, he takes it from the reader, and deliberately cuts it into pieces with his penknife, and throws it into the fire, so that all is destroyed. And that was the answer of Jehoiakim to the Lord and His prophet.
I. This was an act of peculiar and intolerable wickedness, burdened with every aggravation possible.
1. It was committed in defiance of luminous evidence that the prophecies of Jeremiah were indeed the word of the living God.
2. The act of the king was the worse, in that the Word which he so treated was a word not only of threatened wrath and judgment, but also of tender entreaty and still proffered grace.
3. It was committed despite earnest remonstrance from some of those that stood by.
4. To make the deed as bad as possible, this was done on a public fast day, when professedly the king and people were confessing their sins, and imploring the grace and help of God in the nation’s extremity!
This destruction of the roll of the book of Jeremiah was not only very wicked, but no less foolish and useless. The Word of the Lord could not be hindered from fulfilment because the roll on which it was written was burnt.
II. The reasons which probably moved Jehoiakim in his treatment of God’s Word are undoubtedly still in operation in the case of many who, like him, reject the Word of God. Primarily, Jehoiakim’s reason for his treatment of Jeremiah’s prophecy was that there was in the message so much which to him, a fast young man, bent on luxury and display, and endeavouring to combine wickedness with an easy and popular form of religion, was not-pleasant.
The true reason for the most of scepticism is not found in inability of the understanding of the intellect. It is not found in the head at all, but in the heart in the will.
And then the young king was proud. He was filled, apparently, with an egregious conceit of his own importance. He was a cultured young man; he was a connoisseur in architecture as Jeremiah tells us, he was striving to excel in fine building in the precious cedar. But Jeremiah took no account of this. He dealt with him just as with any common, uncultivated, unpolished sinner. And this made the king angry.
III. To reject God’s Word is both wicked and foolish. (1) It is wicked because, as it comes to us Today, it comes supported by the most overwhelming evidence of its Divine authority. (2) Because if in the Word of God is announcement of wrath and warning, there is also in it an expression and a revelation of the tenderest love and grace. (3) Because all who hear these words have, like Jehoiakim, again and again been warned against rejecting it. (4) Because most if not all of us are like Jehoiakim at that time in this also, that we profess to give the Lord a certain degree of outward honour. We profess to be, at least in a general sense, Christians.
To reject the Word of God is as foolish as it is wicked. For with us, as with Jehoiakim, that Word will go on to fulfilment.
S. H. Kellogg, The Past a Prophecy of the Future, p. 219.
References. XXXVI. 22-24. S. Wilberforce, Sermons Preached on Various Occasions, p. 12. XXXVI. 23. J. Thain Davidson, The City Youth, p. 225. T. De Witt Talmage, Sermons, p. 41. A. G. Mortimer, The Church’s Lessons for the Christian Year, part iv. p. 254. XXXVI. 23, 24. E. Fowle, Plain Preaching to Poor People (1st Series), p. 15. XXXVI. 24. “Plain Sermons “by contributors to the Tracts for the Times, vol. i. p. 177. Harvey Goodwin, Parish Sermons, p. 222. XXXVI. 26. C. Jerdan, Pastures of Tender Grass, p. 161.
The Writing on the Roll
Jer 36:28
Jehoiakim was one of the wickedest of the kings of Judah. God ordered Jeremiah to write words of warning in a book or roll, and send it to the king, so that even yet he and his people might repent, and the terrible calamity be averted. Jehoiakim, when he had heard a small part of the message, took this roll and cut it in strips and threw them into the fire. But God will save him and the nation, if possible, in spite of themselves; and so, in the text, we find God ordering Jeremiah to take another roll and write in it all the former words of warning and implied promise.
I. Some of the Rolls in which God Writes His Will:
a. Nature. ‘Day unto day uttereth speech, and night unto night showeth knowledge.’ ‘Doth not: nature itself teach you?’ It tells of God’s power and wisdom and goodness.
b. The history of the world. Its course speaks of the justice of its Almighty Governor. It speaks of the reign of law, of the punishment of sin, of the struggle and triumph of righteousness.
c. The human conscience. There are written in it, as in a roll, the eternal truths that God is angry at sin, that He approves and loves the good.
d. The experience of men. Looking back upon past experience, every man knows and feels that he has been goaded by an unseen power into what was just and right and merciful, and that his kicking against the goads has pierced him with sorrows, and left him scarred with sad reminders of the conflict.
e. The Word of God. God’s law is perfect, and converts the soul. The other rolls from their very nature could only be written in a few large and general characters. They are hieroglyphs rather than words or letters, or, at best, are like some rude and simple language, capable only of expressing the very simplest thoughts. But the Bible is preeminently a word, drawing, as from a deep, exhaustless well, the very thoughts and purposes of a gracious Father.
f. The life and death of the Lord Jesus. There we see the very heart of God revealed.
II. Many Burn the Rolls. Every one of the ways in which the truth and will of God and His very existence have been declared has been gainsaid. The books have been thrown into the fires of criticism and satire and passionate denial. Nature and the heart of man have been pronounced confused and contradictory in their teaching, or even utterly dumb. The history of the world and the success of Christianity have been entirely accounted for by secondary causes. The Bible has been scouted as old wives’ fables, and a revelation from God has been pronounced impossible. Even our Blessed Lord is rejected, or, even as now, regarded as a teacher and reformer rather than as the Saviour and Lord.
III. Yet all God’s Words are Preserved. ‘I will turn aside,’ said Moses, ‘and see this great sight, why the bush is not burned.’ It is a simple fact that God’s words have not failed or been destroyed. The fires have burned fiercely, but ‘the Scripture cannot be broken’; and the heart and conscience of man conies out of the fire with the finger of God more clearly and solemnly traceable in it than ever God writes again ‘the former words’ in the rolls of men’s hearts. The crowning blessing of the Gospel is contained in the promise, ‘I will put my law in their inward parts, and write it in their hearts, and will be their God, and they shall be my people’.
The Fatal Barter
Jer 36:32
A real parallel exists between the contemptuous rejection of the scroll by Jehoiakim and the rejection of revelation by many Today. Far from anything being gained by such rejection, all the old problems revive in exaggerated forms. We may decline the explanations, threatenings, and hopes of these sacred pages; yet the enigmas of life are still with us, and they appear in forms deeper and darker than ever.
I. The Genesis and Design of the World. These constitute one of the first problems pressing for solution. Revelation declares that the world in which we find ourselves, and wherein we must work out our destiny, is the creation of the living, intelligent, and omnipotent God; that in Him it lives, moves, and has its being; and that He governs it to a wise, just, and benevolent end. Many find this explanation entirely unsatisfactory, and reject it; but, having refused the interpretation of revelation, are we in any better position in relation to the question of the origin, meaning, and end of things? Can we discover any more reasonable explanation of the source of the world, of its government and design?
To conclude that this world of manifold wonder and beauty; this human race, with reason, science, love, and piety; these long ages of history, implying harmony and design that all has arisen like a vapour out of the fires of the sun, is surely to aggravate the riddle of the universe and not to dissolve it. To assume that the orb has given birth to so many things greater than itself is to assume the impossible.
To believe in a personal God as the fountain of life and thought, beauty and joy, is, we confess, to rest in a great mystery; but such faith is far more reasonable than that of the fire-worshipper. The problem of the world may not be put aside. It is the first of the obstinate questionings; we cannot escape it, it insistently demands consideration; and, refusing the explanation of revelation, we can only fall back on irrational and incredible theories.
Denying this sublime conception of the first Cause and sovereign Upholder of the universal frame, we ‘cannot choose an object more worthy of our worship than the luminary adored by our ancestors’. Surely there is more luminary than luminousness; we have not gained anything, but lost much, by consigning the sacred writing to the brazier. The enigma of the world returns, the difficulties are greater than ever; ‘many like words have been added unto it’.
II. The Question of Liberty. Revelation by many is renounced in the name of liberty. Our freedom, they hold, is arbitrarily narrowed by the sacred lawgivers. And these emancipated ones have placed on record the sense of enlargement and rapture they experienced when first they felt themselves free of the incubus of the righteous God and His commandments; yet, though we repudiate the throne, statutes, and government of God, we must still recognize the dominion of law, unrestricted liberty being simply impossible.
It may be argued, however, that if the necessity for law survives the destruction of revelation, we may create for ourselves a wider and worthier freedom. Let us, then, inquire whether this is likely. Mark three points as characteristic of the law laid down by revelation for the regulation of human conduct.
1. It assures us of our freedom. From the beginning to the end it distinguishes between us and necessitated nature. Everywhere it upholds the liberty of the human spirit, regards the power of choice as the essence of our greatness, and invests us with responsibility for our character and action. That we are no part of the mechanical world is the fundamental assumption of revelation, therein agreeing with the universal consciousness.
2. The Divine law as expressed in revelation claims obedience as the law of reason, right, and love; and all may see that in keeping such law is liberty indeed. The higher law, as laid down in God’s Word, contains nothing that does not commend itself to the understanding, the conscience, and the heart. But forswearing revelation, we must perforce turn to nature; and what now is the gain? It’ modern science teaches one thing clearly, it is that nature does not furnish high laws of conduct. And if we turn from the material universe and seek the laws of conduct in our own ambiguous nature, we find no royal law of liberty. The book of the soul is as blotted and obscure as the page of nature.
3. Law as expressed in revelation is softened by Divine clemency; it expresses a gracious element elsewhere lacking. Mommsen writes concerning Roman law: ‘It seemed as if the law found a pleasure in presenting on all sides its sharpest spikes, in drawing the most extreme consequences, in forcibly obtruding on the bluntest understanding the tyrannic nature of right’. This is not the characteristic of the legalism of revelation. The severe claims of the Old Testament are yet mellowed by the sentiment of consideration, sympathy, and tenderness.
A great love glows through all the austerity of the Mosaic dispensation. And the burden of the New Testament is God’s grace to a world of sinners; it is one incomparable proclamation of pity, forgiveness, and salvation.
On the score of freedom, then, how much advantaged are we by the repudiation of the sacred canon? No better; only infinitely worse. Having before been beaten with whips, we are now chastised with scorpions. The freedom of the soul, the righteousness of law, the reality of grace, are precious doctrines surrendered. We dethrone the just and gracious Lawgiver, and, having broken His golden sceptre, proceed to occupy His place with blind, dark, capricious shapes, or shapelessnesses, called Fate, Force, Chance, Nemesis, Necessity, Destiny. The writing comes back, and many words, many terrible and painful words, are added to it.
W. L. Watkinson, The Fatal Barter, pp. 1-19.
References. XXXVI. 32. A. Maclaren, Expositions of Holy Scripture Isaiah and Jeremiah, p. 353. XXXVII. 1. Ibid. p. 357.
Fuente: Expositor’s Dictionary of Text by Robertson
VIII
THE LIFE OF JEREMIAH DURING THE LATTER HALF OF THE REIGN OF JEHOIAKIM
Jeremiah 18-20; 22-23, Jer 22:25
We have already described some of the events that occurred during the reign of Jehoiakim and this period, but we group them together in this chapter and discuss them more in detail. These prophecies may have been written by Baruch at the time they were uttered or at Jeremiah’s dictation. Some of them may have been written later and one of them was doubtless written by Jeremiah himself. They comprise the chapters given at the head of this chapter. We shall take them up in the order there given. It is quite probable that some of these prophecies and events occurred a little subsequent to 604 B.C., or after the roll was written and then burned by the king. We cannot fix with any certainty the events of Jeremiah’s life in chronological order. The chapters of this book are grouped with no regard to the order of events in the life of the prophet. In fact, the book makes no claim whatever to be a biography.
We have here in these chapters some lessons from the potter, the prophet’s message to the kings, the princes, the priests, and the shepherds of Israel, as well as the prophets of Judah; prophecies against the neighboring nations; the incident of the writing and the reading of the roll of prophecy; and admonitions to Baruch, his scribe.
We have the story of the potter in Jer 18:1-4 . Jeremiah had been preaching about twenty years and had used, as we have seen, a great many illustrations, a great many figures to make forceful his teachings and illustrate them, so that they would show the workings of divine providence in Israel. One day when he was sitting in the city meditating as to what he should say to the people, what he should use as an illustration so that they would feel the weight of their doom and rejection, suddenly an inspiration comes to him to go down into the lower part of the city from where he was sitting, down into the valley, the valley between Zion and Mount Moriah, called the Tyroean valley, or it may have been the valley of Hinnom. So he goes down and notices a potter sitting at his work. While he watches him, there leaps into his mind and heart a great idea, and he draws an illustration from the potter and his works. In this he is like Jesus who drew many of his illustrations from the common things of life and the affairs of men about him.
Jeremiah watched the potter. He saw him place a lump of clay on his wheel and with his deft fingers begin to mold and fashion it into a piece of pottery, and while he is attempting to fashion it into a beautiful piece, it crumbles and goes to pieces. It would not respond to his treatment. It was too crude for the fine purpose he had in mind, and so it crumbled and fell. It would not adjust itself to the ideal of the potter, and so he could not make the vase he had intended. He did not throw it away but picked it up again and began to mold it into another pattern not so beautiful or fine. He made this one but it was a poorer grade, a more common piece of pottery. We find this recorded in Jer 18:1-4 .
In the application (Jer 18:5-12 ) Jeremiah brings before our minds one of the most beautiful lessons, illustrating divine sovereignty and human freedom, to be found in the Bible. The application shows the relation of the human will to the movement of divine power. He says, Jer 18:6 , “O house of Israel, cannot I do with you as this potter? saith Jehovah. Behold, as the clay in the potter’s hand, so are ye in my hand, O house of Israel.” That is a weighty expression; that nations are clay in God’s hand, as individuals are; the world is but a lump of clay in God’s hands to be fashioned as he wills. “As the clay is in the potter’s hands, so are ye in my hand.” He goes on to explain the import of that truth: “At what instant I shall speak concerning a nation, and concerning a kingdom, to pluck up and to break down and to destroy it [that was the mission of Jeremiah to the nation of Israel and to the surrounding nations] ; if that nation, concerning which I have spoken, turn from their evil, I will repent of the evil that I thought to do unto them.”
This brings us face to face with a great truth in human life; a great fact that must be considered in order to understand the mysteries of divine providence. We can apply the truth to ourselves and ought to do so. It is a statement that in the event that a nation changes its conduct, or repents, God changes his attitude, not that he changes his will, but that he wills to change. Repentance in the main is a change of the will, that is, repentance in man is a change of the mind, or will, but repentance in God is the will to change. So God changes his attitude toward men when they repent. That is the way it is with the potter; he wills to fashion the clay according to his plan, but when it will not adjust itself to his ideal, then he changes his plan and fashions it as best he may. The idea is this, if the potter cannot make the best kind of a vessel out of the clay, he will do the next best thing. How mightily this truth applies to individuals. He uses the materials we give him. He does the best he can to train us as we submit to his leading. Thus, this principle, as illustrated by the potter and his clay, applies to us in our daily lives. It is only as we are pliable that God can work with us and through us.
In Jer 18:10 he says, “If they do that which is evil in my sight then I will repent of the good, wherewith I said I would benefit them.” Now, that is the same idea as set forth in repenting and not doing evil. If we change, he will, in harmony with his changelessness, change, too. He will do with us as we do with him. Jonah said, “Yet forty days and Nineveh shall be destroyed.” That was God’s prophecy concerning that wicked city. After all that threatening, God did not do it because they repented, and Jonah was angry and disappointed. He wanted the city to be destroyed. The city repented, and then God repented, too, and thus the change was in the city and in God. Here in Jer 18:11 he says, “Behold I frame evil against you; return every one from his evil ways.”
Then in Jer 18:14 he draws lessons from nature. He shows how constant nature is. He says, “Shall the snow of Lebanon fail from the rock of the field? or shall the cold waters that flow down from afar be dried up?” He fixes his eyes on the snow-capped Lebanons or Hermon, and he sees that the snows are there perpetual according to the laws of nature. That snow as it melts is the source of the rivers of Damascus and the winding Jordan and they never dry up. Their source is stable; it faileth not. These streams run perpetually. He says in verse Jer 18:15 : “My people have forgotten me, they have burned incense to false gods; they have been made to stumble in their ways.” They are unstable but nature is not, and God is not, and thus he describes their defection from him.
As a result of this preaching the people begin to devise plans for taking Jeremiah (Jer 18:18 ). They decide that his preaching must stop. They must get rid of him. They concocted a scheme against him once before and he was saved from their trap. Now they concoct another scheme. They said, “Come, and let us devise devices against Jeremiah; for [even though he be dead] the law shall not perish from the priests, nor counsel from the wise, nor the word from the prophet. Come, and let us smite him with the tongue, and let us not give heed to any of his words.” Now what is the use of listening to this preacher of calamity? We have the law. We will not lose the book of wisdom. We will always have these with us. Then Jeremiah begins to pray to the Lord to punish these plotters, verses Jer 18:19-20 : “Give heed to me, O Lord, . . . Shall evil be recompensed for good? Remember how I stood before thee to speak good for them,” and now they plan to kill me.
He had been standing there and preaching the truth to these men and now he fears the Lord is going to let them kill him. He says, “I have tried to help them. I would give my life to save them. And now this is what they are doing.” He prays that God will punish them; that he will give them over to the sword and destroy their children. “Let their women become childless.” Now, was that an expression of mere bitterness? No! It was not mere human anger; it was a deep sense of outraged justice. Verse Jer 18:23 : “Jehovah, thou knowest all their counsel against me to slay me; forgive not their iniquities, neither blot out their sin from thy sight.” That reminds us of Psa 109 . It seems contrary to the spirit of Christ, yet it reminds one of the spirit of Jesus when he says to the Pharisees and the Sadducees, “How can ye escape the damnation of hell?”
We have here another lesson from the potter (Jer 19:1-13 ). Jeremiah is told to go and buy an earthen bottle made also by a potter. He bought it. We do not know what sort; it may have been a good one. Then the Lord said, “Take of the elders of the people, and of the elders of the priests; and go forth into the valley of the son of Hinnom, which is by the entry of the gate of Harsith, and proclaim there the words that I shall tell thee.” That place was just outside the walls of the city, the place where the rubbish was thrown, perhaps where the potters and their factories were. Now, go down there, Jeremiah, with that vessel.
This is what he was to say: “Hear ye the word of Jehovah, O kings of Judah, and inhabitants of Jerusalem; . . . Behold, I will bring evil upon this place.” Then he goes on to give the reasons. They had worshiped idols continually. They had done evil repeatedly. “This place,” as a result, “shall no longer be called the valley of the son of Hinnom, but the place of slaughter.” Verse Jer 19:8 : “I will make this city an astonishment, and a hissing.” Destruction shall come. “Every one that passeth by shall be astonished and hiss and they shall eat the flesh of their children.” Then he took the elders and the priests and in their presence he broke the bottle to pieces. Then he said, “As I have broken this bottle, so will Jehovah break in pieces this city, so that it cannot be put together again.” The lesson is seen in Jer 19:11 : “It cannot be made whole again.” As that bottle is destroyed forever, so will I destroy this nation and I will destroy it forever, as far as human power is concerned.
Immediately after this incident Jeremiah comes back to the Temple and repeats the warning he had given, to the elders and the priests: “I stood in the courts of the Lord’s house and said to all the people, I will bring upon this city and this people all the evils that I have pronounced against them, because they have made their necks stiff that they hear not my words.” There are no people on earth so sure of doom as those who have simply made up their minds that they will not hear. These are they who are deaf by choice. These people had gone so far that they would not even listen. Of course, then, they could not hear. Even now sometimes people simply make up their minds that they will not hear and there is no hope for them.
Pashhur was the chief officer in the Temple. He was himself a prophet but a false one. He heard the words of Jeremiah and noted that threat. It enraged him. He set upon Jeremiah and struck him and put him in the stocks, till the following day. His smiting probably refers to whipping on the soles of his feet with the bastinado. He then put him in the stocks. His hands and feet put through openings in planks, he is forced into a stooping position. His head perhaps was put through a wooden stock or pillory. This is the first physical violence that Jeremiah had suffered.
“Then said Jeremiah unto him, the Lord hath not called thee Pashur, but Magor-missabib.” “Pashur” means a man in quietness or peace, and “Magor-missabib” means terror all around. Mr. Pashur, your name must be changed. You are going to be a terror to yourself. That is your fate. Thy friends shall fall by the sword and thine eyes shall behold it. “For thus saith Jehovah, I will give all Judah into the hand of the king of Babylon and he shall carry them captive to Babylon and shall slay them with the sword. I will give them the treasures of the Temple and this city. This shall happen to you and your friends who prophesy falsely.” And so they did. Very soon Mr. Pashur was taken captive to Babylon and died, surrounded by terrors. The rest of this chapter contains Jeremiah’s lamentation. We studied this in the chapter on “The Life and Character of Jeremiah.” I called attention to that section where Jeremiah cursed the day in which he was born. He accused God of alluring him into prophesying and then deserting him. Then God led him step by step out of his despondency and up to the plane of praise and joy.
About this time, when Jeremiah was at liberty, a great many enemies had overrun the land of Palestine and the people had flocked to Jerusalem for protection. Among this host came the Rechabites. When Jehu was carrying on his revolution he met Jonadab who had founded this order, or sect, of the Rechabites and invited him into his chariot. They were noted for three things: They vowed not to live in houses; to have no vineyards; and to drink no wine forever. This class of people took refuge in Jerusalem; Jeremiah goes to these Rechabites, takes their leaders into the Temple and sets bottles of wine before them.
Note Jer 35:3 (Jeremiah writes, this himself): “Then I took Jaazaniah the son of Jeremiah, . . . and I brought them into the house of Jehovah.” He goes on: “And I set before the sons of the Rechabites bowls of wine, and I said unto them, Drink ye wine. “But they said, We will drink no wine; for Jonadab the son of Rechab our father, commands us.” They were faithful to the commands of their ancestor. Jeremiah seized upon this occasion as a basis for addressing the people. He goes on to say that Jonadab had commanded this people so and so. “They kept that command, but ye would not obey God who commanded you to serve him.” He outlines the punishment that will come upon the people, but makes a promise unto the sons of Jonadab, verse Jer 35:19 : “Therefore saith the Lord of hosts, . . . Jonadab the son of Rechab shall not want a man to stand before me for ever.”
He inculcates the principle of righteousness and justice in Jer 22:1-9 . The king is to be the instrument of righteousness and justice. There is no doubt that Jehoiakim, the vassal of Pharaoh, the king of Egypt, sat on the throne. Jeremiah appeals to him to do right and be just. In Jer 22:4 he says, “If you do this thing indeed, then shall there enter in by the gates of this house kings sitting upon the throne of David, riding in chariots and on horses, he, and his servants and his people. But if ye will not do these things, I swear by myself, that this house shall come to desolation.” And thus he goes on with his message of destruction. He repeats it over and over again.
The fate of Shallam, or Jehoahaz, is described in Jer 22:10-22 : “Weep for him that goeth away; for he shall return to his native land no more.” Then a charge against Jehoiakim is found in Jer 22:13-23 . This king was a heartless tyrant. He had a passion for building. He had a magnificent palace. He built by using the people unjustly. He was without conscience or principle: “Woe unto him that buildeth a house with unrighteousness.” The son of this king succeeded him and the prophet goes on to describe the ruin coming upon this house (Jer 22:20-23 ).
Then follows judgment on Jehoiachin (Jer 22:24-30 ). This was doubtless written after the death of Jehoiakim. Jehoiachin was taken to Babylon, and it may have been written immediately preceding that event. We cannot be sure as to the exact time this section was penned. Verse Jer 22:24 : “As I live, saith Jehovah, though Coniah the son of Jehoiakim were a signet upon my right hand, yet would I pluck thee thence.” He then goes on to describe the fate of the house; how Jehoiachin with his mother should be cast out and die in a foreign land, never to return to Judah. The king was to have no heir to sit upon his throne.
The message of Jer 23:1-8 is one regarding the princes, or shepherds. These princes of Judah and Jerusalem are spoken of as the shepherds of the people. They were the political and civil shepherds. God called them the shepherds of his pasture. He charged them with neglect of duty: “Therefore saith Jehovah, the God of Israel, Ye have scattered my flock.” They had not provided them spiritual pasture. But a time is coming when they shall come together again and shall have good shepherds. Jer 23:5 is a messianic prophecy: “I will raise unto David a righteous Branch, and he shall reign as king and deal wisely, . . . Judah shall be saved, and Israel shall dwell safely.”
The prophet’s own title of Jer 23:9-40 is, “Concerning the Prophets.” We discussed this in a former chapter. We showed Jeremiah’s charge against these false prophets. They were caterers and time-servers. They preached what the people wanted them to preach. They felt the pulse of the people and then shaped their messages accordingly.
The prophecy of Jer 25 is a prophecy concerning Judah and the surrounding nations. This was in the fourth year of the reign of Jehoiakim, 604 B.C., after Jeremiah had been preaching twenty-three years. Note some details here:
1. In Jer 25:1-14 Jeremiah predicted that Nebuchadnezzar would take Palestine, Judah, and Jerusalem; that he would lead them captive to Babylon; that there should be desolation; that this nation should serve the king of Babylon seventy years; that when the seventy years was accomplished, then Jehovah would punish the king of Babylon, and that nation for their iniquity and their land should be a desolation forever.
2.Jer 25:15-26 show that the cup of the wrath of Jehovah must be drunk by all the nations surrounding Judah. He said that they should drink the cup of the wine of his fury. Pharaoh, the king of Egypt, shall drink it; the land of Uz, the Philistines, Edom, Moab, Ammon, Tyre, Sidon, those of the Grecian Archipelago, Dedan, Tema, Buz, Arabia, Zimri, Elam, the Medes, and Sheshack shall drink of it.
3.Jer 25:27-29 show that the nations must drink it. This is the substance of that passage. The doom is inevitable. The last part of the chapter, verses 30-38, gives a description of the conquest of the Babylonians, and the terrible destruction which should come upon the nations.
An account of the writing, reading, burning, and rewriting of the roll is given in Jer 36:1-32 . This is an interesting incident. In the fourth year of the reign of Jehoiakim, 604 B.C., the word of the Lord came to Jeremiah and told him to write his prophecy. Doubtless the persecution was so intense that he had to stop preaching. Jeremiah was a faithful prophet, but be could not preach any more in the open, and so the Lord told him to write his prophecies in a book, or roll. That was a wonderfully wise suggestion. If Paul had not been imprisoned two years at Caesarea, it is possible Luke would not have written his Gospel. If the same great apostle had not suffered his Roman imprisonment, we would doubtless never have had his matchless epistles to the Philippians, Colossians, Ephesians, and Hebrews. If Bunyan had not gone to jail, doubtless Pilgrim’s Progress would never have been written. And so it is here, if Jeremiah had not been persecuted, we would in all probability never have had his written prophecy. He ordered Baruch to write it down as he dictated it to him. It was the substance of his twenty-three years of ministry. How long he was in writing it, we do not know, doubtless some months. After he had written it the next thing was to read it to the people. We cannot go into details. Here is the story in substance: Baruch took the roll and went to the Temple where the people passed, stood in the door with the princes and the friends of Jeremiah at his back and read the prophecy. It made a deep impression on the princes and the people. It had a different effect on others. They resented it and hated Jeremiah the more. Some of them went and told the king about it. In brief, he had it brought to him. Jehudi read it and the king cut it to pieces and soon every shred of it was a heap of ashes. Then he ordered the arrest of Jeremiah, but he had securely hidden himself. Then Jeremiah and Baruch wrote the prophecies again.
We have certain admonitions of Jeremiah to Baruch in Jer 45 . After all his heroism this man Baruch grew despondent. This faithful scribe who had stood by Jeremiah through all his troubles now becomes troubled. We are told about it in chapter Jer 45:3 : “Thus didst thou say, Woe is me, for Jehovah hath added sorrow to my pain.” Jeremiah tells him that the Lord breaks down that which he has planted: “Behold, I will pluck up this whole land.” Baruch, have you thought that there were great things coming to you? Did you expect better things? “Seekest thou great things for thyself? Seek them not.” I am going to bring evil upon this whole land. You are not going to be a great man but your life is going to stand. What fine advice that was to this faithful secretary and scribe. Do you seek great things for yourself? Seek them not. Your life will be spared, that is enough.
QUESTIONS
1. What is the subject of this chapter of this INTERPRETATION? And what are the dates of these several chapters of Jeremiah?
2. What, in general, are the contents of these chapters?
3. What is the story of the potter in Jer 18:1-4 ?
4. What is the prophet’s application of the incident of the potter to Israel and what, in particular, is the meaning of God’s repentance here toward Israel for good or evil? (Jer 18:5-12 .)
5. What is the lesson here drawn from nature by the prophet? (Jer 18:13-17 .)
6. What is the result of the prophet’s preaching (Jer 18:18 ) and what his response? (Jer 18:19-23 .)
7. What is the second incident of the potter’s vessel and what its application? (Jer 19:1-13 .)
8. What is the prophet’s message in the Temple immediately following the second lesson from the potter’s vessel?
9. Give an account of Pashhur’s persecution.
10. Who were the Rechabites, what were their characteristics and what was the lesson enforced by Jeremiah based upon their history?
11. Who addressed in Jer 22:1-9 and what is the message to him?
12. Who is spoken of in Jer 22:10-12 and what is there said of him?
13. What is the charge against Jehoiakim and what is the result (Jer 22:13-23 )?
14. What is the contents of Jer 22:24-30 ?
15. What is the message of Jer 23:1-8 and how are the shepherds here characterized?
16. What is the prophet’s own title of Jer 23:9-40 and what is the charge of Jeremiah here against these false prophets?
17. What is the prophecy of Jer 25 and what are the essential points noted?
18. Give an account of the writing, reading, burning, and rewriting of the roll (Jer 36:1-32 ).
19. What are the admonitions of Jeremiah to Baruch in Jer 45 and what is their lesson?
Fuente: B.H. Carroll’s An Interpretation of the English Bible
Jer 36:1 And it came to pass in the fourth year of Jehoiakim the son of Josiah king of Judah, [that] this word came unto Jeremiah from the LORD, saying,
Ver. 1. And it came to pass in the fourth year. ] This whole chapter is historical and narrative, as also are some others besides this. Historias lege, ne fias historia.
Jeremiah Chapter 36
The last chapter presented the Lord’s admonitions to, if not reproach of, Judah in contrast with the fidelity of the Rechabites to their father, even though their obligations were of small intrinsic account. Jer 36 adds an awful view of the obstinate unbelief of the king with its profane issue, and the condign judgment threatened which was surely accomplished at the fitting moment. Thus the guilt of the people and the king alike comes before us in these distinct but connected words from Jehovah to Jeremiah.
The prophet was bound, but the word of God was not. He is ever superior to the shifting circumstances of man, and paramount to the hindrances which seem to preclude the testimony of His servants. “And it came to pass in the fourth year of Jehoiakim the son of Josiah king of Judah, that this word came unto Jeremiah from the Lord, saying, Take thee a roll of a book, and write therein all the words that I have spoken unto thee against Israel, and against Judah, and against all the nations, from the day I spake unto thee, from the days of Josiah, even unto this day. It may be that the house of Judah will hear all the evil which I purpose to do unto them; that they may return every man from his evil way; that I may forgive their iniquity and their sin. Then Jeremiah called Baruch the son of Neriah: and Baruch wrote from the mouth of Jeremiah all the words of the Lord, which he had spoken unto him, upon a roll of a book. And Jeremiah commanded Baruch, saying, I am shut up; I cannot go into the house of the Lord: therefore go thou, and read in the roll, which thou hast written from my mouth, the words of the Lord, in the ears of the people in the Lord’s house upon the fasting day: and also thou shalt read them in the ears of all Judah that come out of their cities. It may be they will present their supplication before the Lord, and will return every one from his evil way: for great is the anger and the fury that the Lord hath pronounced against this people. And Baruch the son of Neriah did according to all that Jeremiah the prophet commanded him, reading in the book the words of the Lord in the Lord’s house.” (Ver. 1-8.)
The spirit of obedience ere long finds a fitting moment for serving the Lord. “And it came to pass in the fifth year of Jehoiakim the son of Josiah king of Judah, in the ninth month, that they proclaimed a fast before the Lord to all the people in Jerusalem, and to all the people that came from the cities of Judah unto Jerusalem. Then read Baruch in the book the words of Jeremiah in the house of the Lord, in the chamber of Gemariah the son of Shaphan the scribe, in the higher court, at the entry of the new gate of the Lord’s house, in the ears of all the people. When Michaiah the son of Gemariah, the son of Shaphan, had heard out of the book in the words of the Lord, then he went down into the king’s house, into the scribe’s chamber: and, lo, all the princes sat there, even Elishama the scribe, and Deliah the son of Shemaiah, and Elnathan the son of Achbor, and Gemariah the son of Shaphan, and Zedekiah the son of Hananiah, and all the princes. Then Michaiah declared unto them all the words that he had heard, when Baruch read the book in the ears of the people.” (Ver. 9-13.)
But the ways of God are wise as well as good. Without our own seeking it, He knows how to bring His word before the greatest of men. As Paul before governors, a king, and an emperor, so the words of the Lord through Jeremiah came into the council chamber and the court. “Therefore all the princes sent Jehudi the son of Nethaniah, the son of Shelemiah, the son of Cushi, unto Baruch, saying, Take in thine hand the roll wherein thou hast read in the ears of the people, and come. So Baruch the son of Neriah took the roll in his hand, and came unto them. And they said unto him, Sit down now and read it in our ears. So Baruch read it in their ears. Now it came to pass, when they had heard all the words, they were afraid both one and other, and said unto Baruch, We will surely tell the king of all these words. And they asked Baruch, saying, Tell us now, How didst thou write all these words it his mouth? Then Baruch answered them, He pronounced all these words unto me with his mouth, and I wrote them with ink in the book. Then said the princes unto Baruch, Go, hide thee, thou and Jeremiah; and let no man know where ye be. And they went in to the king into the court, but they laid up the roll in the chamber of Elishama the scribe, and told all the words in the ears of the king. So the king sent Jehudi to fetch the roll: and he took it out of Elishama the scribe’s chamber. And Jehudi read it in the ears of the king, and in the ears of all the princes which stood beside the king.” (Ver. 14-2l.) How blessed! The servant of Jehovah keeps his own place of lowliness, despised and suffering as his Master at a later day; but the message none the less surely reaches the throne.
Alas! it was a rejected testimony, and he who sat on David’s throne startled his most obsequious courtiers by the boldness of his rebellion against Jehovah. “Now the king sat in the winter-house in the ninth month: and there was a fire on the hearth burning before him. And it came to pass, that when Jehudi had read three or four leaves, he cut it with the penknife, and cast it into the fire that was on the hearth, until all the roll was consumed in the fire that was on the hearth. Yet they were not afraid, nor rent their garments, neither the king, nor any of his servants that heard all these words. Nevertheless Elnathan and Delaiah and Gemariah had made intercession to the king that he would not burn the roll: but he would not hear them.” (Ver. 22-25.) Jehoiakim saw no more than a roll, but his guilty conscience felt a horror of that roll which betrayed his fears under veil of the contempt which cut it up and consumed its leaves in the fire.
Vain hope to escape from the hand of Jehovah, who not only hid His servants, but repeated His threats and yet more: “But the king commanded Jerahmeel the son of Hammelech, and Seraiah the son of Azriel, and Shelemiah the son of Abdeel, to take Baruch the scribe and Jeremiah the prophet: but the Lord hid them. Then the word of the Lord came to Jeremiah, after that the king had burned the roll, and the words which Baruch wrote at the mouth of Jeremiah, saying, Take thee again another roll, and write in it all the former words that were in the first roll, which Jehoiakim the king of Judah hath burned. And thou shalt say to Jehoiakim king of Judah, Thus saith the Lord; Thou hast burned this roll, saying, Why hast thou written therein, saying, The king of Babylon shall certainly come and destroy this land, and shall cause to cease from thence man and beast? therefore thus saith the Lord of Jehoiakim king of Judah; He shall have none to sit upon the throne of David: and his dead body shall be cast out in the day to the heat, and in the night to the frost. And I will punish him and his seed and his servants for their iniquity; and I will bring upon them, and upon the inhabitants of Jerusalem, and upon the men of Judah, all the evil that I have pronounced against them; but they hearkened not. Then took Jeremiah another roll, and gave it to Baruch the scribe, the son of Neriah; who wrote therein from the mouth of Jeremiah all the words of the book which Jehoiakim king of Judah had hurried in the fire: and there were added besides unto them many like words.” (Ver. 26 -32.) How implicitly we may commit ourselves and our testimony to the Lord who watches over all to do good, and to warn of evil, without ever letting go the reins over that which is beyond our control. May we only and always cherish the guidance of His word by the Spirit!
NASB (UPDATED) TEXT: Jer 36:1-3
1In the fourth year of Jehoiakim the son of Josiah, king of Judah, this word came to Jeremiah from the LORD, saying, 2Take a scroll and write on it all the words which I have spoken to you concerning Israel and concerning Judah, and concerning all the nations, from the day I first spoke to you, from the days of Josiah, even to this day. 3Perhaps the house of Judah will hear all the calamity which I plan to bring on them, in order that every man will turn from his evil way; then I will forgive their iniquity and their sin.
Jer 36:1 In the fourth year of Jehoiakim This is the same introductory phrase used in chapters Jeremiah 25, 45, , 46. The year is 605 B.C. This was the year of the Battle of Carchemish in which the Babylonians defeated the Egyptian and the remnants of the Assyrian armies. Daniel had been in exile for one year (cf. Dan 1:1). This Judean king was a son of the godly King Josiah. He grew up under godly teachers but his heart turned away from God. Ezekiel 18 uses him and his father or Hezekiah and Manasseh as types.
Jer 36:2 Jeremiah’s message was not his own! YHWH wanted His message delivered to that generation in writing so it could be a witness to us also (cf. Rom 4:23-24; Rom 15:4; 1Co 10:6; 1Co 10:11; 1Pe 1:10-12). He spoke to a particular culture, at a particular time, but the basic message has relevance for all believers for all times! The best book I have read that discusses this issue is Gordon Fee, Gospel and Spirit. I commend it to you.
concerning Israel and concerning Judah, and concerning all the nations YHWH is not a God of the Israelites only (see Special Topic: YHWH’s Eternal Redemptive Plan ) but a God of all the world (cf. Gen 3:15; Gen 12:3; Exo 19:5; Psa 22:27; Psa 66:1-4; Psa 86:8-10; Isa 2:2-4; Isa 12:4-5; Isa 25:6-9; Isa 42:6-12; Isa 45:22-23; Isa 49:5-6; Isa 51:4-5; Isa 56:6-8; Isa 60:1-3; Isa 66:23; Jonah; Mic 4:1-4; Mal 1:11; Joh 3:16; Joh 4:42; 1Ti 2:4; Tit 2:11; 2Pe 3:9; 1Jn 2:1; 1Jn 4:14)!
Jer 36:3 all the calamity which I plan to bring on them This is a difficult phrase to understand. Does this mean that every physical tragedy is from the hand of God? I think not! But sometimes it is or at least He allows the consequences of a fallen world to manifest in the lives of nations and individuals. If this occurred every time we sinned, we would all live in constant crises. Here is a problem.
1. God does use problems (physical, emotional, relational, spiritual) to cause us to recognize His presence and purpose for our lives. There are consequences for disobedience (cf. Leviticus 26; Deuteronomy 27-28, 30).
2. Everything that happens to us in our lives is not the hand of God but the consequences of living in a fallen world.
3. I never know if what happens to me is a result of #1 or #2, so I choose to use the circumstances (good or bad) to seek God and His will and pleasure for my life. He is with us and for us (my worldview). I filter everything through this truth.
4. In the OT all causality is attributed to God to affirm monotheism (see Special Topic: Monotheism ). The OT does not recognize or designate secondary causes!
every man will turn from his evil ways This is a continuing emphasis of individual responsibility (i.e., a conditional covenant, cf. Jer 31:31-34; Eze 18:2-4). Notice how YHWH desires that all Judah repent, one person at a time.
I will forgive their iniquity and their sins This is the continuing promise of the graciousness of God, that if humans (i.e., Judah) will turn to Him in repentance and faith (cf. Jer 7:5-7; Jer 26:3; Psa 103:6-14; Isa 1:16-19; Mar 1:15), He will turn to them (cf. Zec 1:3; Mal 3:7). Note the implied if. . .then conditional covenant.
The Thirty-Second Prophecy of Jeremiah (see book comments for Jeremiah).
the fourth year of Jehoiakim. This was after Nebuchadnezzar had left Jerusalem with his band of young captives, including Daniel. See App-86. The city had become quieted down again.
the LORD. Hebrew. Jehovah. App-4.
This time shall we turn to Jeremiah chapter 36 as we continue our journey through the Word of God towards heaven.
Now as we have pointed out, the prophecies of Jeremiah are not in chronological order but they sort of skip around, and so it is important at the beginning of each chapter where Jeremiah locates for you the time and usually the place of the prophecy so that you’ll be able to fit it more into the historic events. Because you just can’t read Jeremiah in a chronological order, it isn’t written that way. So in chapter 36, we have the prophecy of Jeremiah that came to him.
In the fourth year of Jehoiakim [who was] the son of Josiah the king of Judah, that this is the word of the LORD which came to Jeremiah, saying, Now take thee a scroll of a book, and write therein all of the words that I have spoken unto thee against Israel, and against Judah, and against all the nations, from the day I spake unto thee, from the days of Josiah, even until this day ( Jer 36:1-2 ).
Now, you remember he was called to prophesy in the thirteenth year of the reign of Josiah. He prophesied on through the death of Josiah, about fifteen years later, and now four years later in the son of Jehoiakim or the son of Josiah, Jehoiakim’s reign, God commands him to write all of the prophecies on this scroll that I’ve given you up till now. So it was no doubt quite a task to go back and to rehearse all of the Word of the Lord that had come to Jeremiah during this approximately twenty-year period.
The Lord declares,
It may be that the house of Judah will hear all the evil which I purpose to do unto them; that they may return every man from his evil way; that I may forgive their iniquity and their sin ( Jer 36:3 ).
Now the purpose of giving to them the Word of the Lord was to turn them from sin. God is constantly giving to man the opportunity of repenting, of turning from his sin. God said through Ezekiel the prophet, “Turn ye, turn ye for why will you die, saith the Lord? Behold, I have no pleasure in the death of the wicked” ( Eze 33:11 ). Now here God again is saying, “Write it all down. It may be that they will turn from their sins in order that I might forgive them their iniquities and their sins.” God glories in forgiveness. God delights to forgive you all of your sins. All He wants is just an excuse, and you provide Him that excuse by asking Him. God is really more desirous to forgive us of our sins than usually we are to be forgiven. Quite often we with David, as he describes his experience in Psa 32:1-11 , seek to cover our sins. We seek to hide our sins from the Lord. We just seek not to mention it, you know. Just sort of keep silent about it. But as David said, “When I sought to cover my sins, man, there was a constant roaring within. And I began to just dry up. I became just dried spiritually. Then I said, ‘I will confess my sin unto the Lord,” and he said, “and Thou forgavest me all my iniquities” ( Psa 32:3-5 ).
Now in the Hebrew as that reads, the moment David in his heart said, “I’m going to confess,” before he could ever get the words out of his lips, just that change of the attitude in his heart, “and Thou forgavest me.” That’s all God’s looking for, just the change in the attitude of your heart. “Oh God, I’m sorry. I’m going to confess to You my sins. I’m going to get right with God.” Before you can get out of your mouth, you’re already right with God. God is just looking for that change towards Him. The moment in your heart you have that turn towards God, “I’m going to just turn it over to God, I’m just going to turn,” just in that moment God begins His work of cleansing, forgiving, pardoning. God delights to forgive us our sins.
And so the purpose of the Word of God to these people, “Write it all down, give it to them. That they might hear all of the evil indictments that I have against them and the evil that I am purposing to do to them. Maybe if they know the judgment that is coming they will turn.”
Then Jeremiah called Baruch [who was] the son of Neriah: and Baruch wrote from the mouth of Jeremiah all the words of the LORD, which he had spoken unto him, upon this scroll of a book. And Jeremiah commanded Baruch, saying, Now I am shut up ( Jer 36:4-5 );
That is, he was in prison.
I cannot go into the house of the LORD: Therefore go thou, and read in the roll, which you have written from my mouth, the words of the LORD in the ears of the people in the LORD’S house upon the fasting day: and also thou shalt read them in the ears of all Judah that come out of their cities ( Jer 36:5-6 ).
Now they had proclaimed a fast. They invited the people to come for this time of fasting. And usually a time of fasting is associated with a time of seeking the Lord. A very appropriate time for the Word of God to come to the people. And so Jeremiah commanded Baruch, who is the scribe, to write all of the words in the book and then go and read them in the house of the Lord when that day of fasting came and people were gathering from all over Judah to worship the Lord.
It may be they will present their supplication before the LORD, and they will return every man from his evil way: for great is the anger and the fury that the LORD hath pronounced against this people. So Baruch the son of Neriah did according to all that Jeremiah the prophet commanded him, and he read the book of the words of the LORD in the LORD’S house. And it came to pass in the fifth year of Jehoiakim the son of Josiah the king of Judah, in the ninth month, that they proclaimed a fast before the LORD to all the people in Jerusalem, and to all the people that came from the cities of Judah unto Jerusalem. Then Baruch read in the book the words of Jeremiah in the house of the LORD, in the chamber of Gemariah the son of Shaphan the scribe, in the higher court, at the entry of the new gate of the LORD’S house, in the ears of all the people. Now when Michaiah the son of Gemariah, the son of Shaphan, had heard out of the book all the words of the LORD, Then he went down into the king’s house, into the scribe’s chamber: and all of the princes were sitting there ( Jer 36:7-12 ),
And it gives the names of these various princes.
And Michaiah declared unto them all the words that he had heard, when Baruch read the book in the ears of the people. Therefore all the princes sent Jehudi the son of Nethaniah, the son of Shelemiah ( Jer 36:13-14 ),
And all of these names are worthless to us.
unto Baruch, saying, Take in thine hand the roll [or the scroll] wherein you have read in the ears of the people, and come ( Jer 36:14 ).
So Baruch was down there reading it and this young fellow heard him reading, ran and told the princes who were there in the house of the scribes what this guy was reading to the people. And they said, “Well, you better get him down here.” So he ran back and got Baruch and he said, “Come with me and read the scroll to these fellows down here.”
And they said unto him, Sit down now, and read it in our ears. So Baruch read it in their ears. Now it came to pass, when they had heard all the words, that they were both afraid one and another, and said unto Baruch, We will surely tell the king of all these words. And they asked Baruch, saying, Tell us now, How did you write all these words at his mouth? And Baruch answered them, [he said,] He pronounced all these words unto me with his mouth, and I wrote them with ink in the book ( Jer 36:15-18 ).
How do you think?
Then said the princes unto Baruch, Go, hide thee, you and Jeremiah; and don’t let any body know where you are ( Jer 36:19 ).
Now we’re going to take this to the king and you guys better go hide.
So they went in to the king into the court, but they laid up the roll in the chamber of Elishama the scribe, and told all the words in the ears of the king. So the king sent Jehudi to Elishama the scribe’s chamber. And Jehudi read it in the ears of the king, and in the ears of the princes which stood beside the king. Now the king was sitting in his winter quarters in the ninth month: and there was a fire on the hearth burning before him. And it came to pass, that when Jehudi had read three or four of the leaves, that he cut it with his penknife, and cast it into the fire that was on the hearth, until the whole scroll was consumed in the fire that was on the hearth. Yet they were not afraid, nor did they tear their garments, neither the king, nor any of his servants that heard all of these words ( Jer 36:20-24 ).
Rather than fearing the Lord, rather than repenting, rather than as was the custom when they really were repenting before God often they would rip their clothes as a sign of great repentance and sorrow, none of that.
Nevertheless Elnathan and Delaiah and Gemariah had made intercession to the king that he would not burn the scroll: but he would not listen to them. But the king commanded Jerahmeel the son of Hammelech, and Seraiah the son of Azriel, and Shelemiah the son of Abdeel, to take Baruch the scribe and Jeremiah the prophet: but the LORD hid them. Then the word of the LORD came to Jeremiah, after that the king had burned the scroll, and the words which Baruch wrote at the mouth of Jeremiah, and the LORD said to him, Take thee again another scroll, and write in it all the former words that were in the first scroll, which Jehoiakim the king of Judah hath burned. And thou shalt say to Jehoiakim king of Judah, Thus saith the LORD; You have burned this scroll, saying, Why hast thou written therein, saying, The king of Babylon shall certainly come and destroy this land, and shall cause to cease from thence man and beast? Therefore thus saith the LORD of Jehoiakim the king of Judah; He shall have none to sit upon the throne of David: his dead body shall be cast out in the day to the heat, and in the night to the frost. And I will punish him and his seed and his servants for their iniquity; and I will bring upon them, and upon the inhabitants of Jerusalem, and upon the men of Judah, all the evil that I have pronounced against them; but they hearkened not. Then took Jeremiah another scroll, and gave it to Baruch the scribe, the son of Neriah; who wrote therein from the mouth of Jeremiah all the words of the book which Jehoiakim king of Judah had burned in the fire: and there were added besides to those many like words ( Jer 36:25-32 ).
And so more or less as a record of God’s truth, these scrolls were written of that Word of God in the warning of the people of the evil and the judgment that would come upon them if they would not forsake their sins and follow after the Lord. But Jehoiakim the king, showing his disdain for the Word of God, took his penknife, cut it up and threw it in the fire. But prophets of God are not silenced that easy, so Jeremiah got another scroll, wrote the whole thing down again adding other words to it. And, of course, these are the prophecies basically that we have been reading in the book of Jeremiah. These are the copies of these various scrolls, the pages that were written, the various words that God gave to Jeremiah concerning His judgment that was coming upon Judah using the Babylonian army as God’s instrument of judgment.
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Jer 36:1-3
Jer 36:1-3
GOD COMMANDS THE BOOK TO BE WRITTEN
And it came to pass in the fourth year of Jehoiakim the son of Josiah, king of Judah, that this word came unto Jeremiah from Jehovah, saying, Take thee a roll of a book, and write therein all the words that I have spoken unto thee against Israel, and against Judah, and against all the nations, from the day I spake unto thee, from the days of Josiah, even unto this day. It may be that the house of Judah will hear all the evil which I purpose to do unto them; that they may return every man from his evil way; that I may forgive their iniquity and their sin.
The date of the chapter is firmly fixed in the fourth year of Jehoiachim. “This was the year 604 B.C., following the victory of Nebuchadnezzar over the Egyptians at Carchemish.” “It is scarcely a coincidence that it was in this very month of December that the Babylonians assaulted, captured, and sacked Ashkelon on the Philistine plain; and not long afterward, Jehoiachim was forced to become a vassal of Babylon.” Halley further described the historical situation.
“Jeremiah at that time had been prophesying 23 years, from the 13th year of Josiah to the fourth year of Jehoiachim. The purpose was to have Baruch read a copy of all Jeremiah’s prophecies to the people at a time when Jeremiah had apparently been banned from the temple area. It took a year or so to write the prophecies. Its reading made a profound impression on some of the princes, but the king reacted angrily, burning the roll in the fire.”
I. The commandment received (Jer 36:1-3)
Jeremiah was commanded by the Lord to take a roll of a book (Jer 36:2). The writing substance here is no doubt papyrus. Several pieces were stitched together and attached to a roller of wood at one or both ends. The writing was arranged in columns parallel to the rollers, so that as the scroll was gradually unrolled from one end to the other, the successive columns could be read. Upon this scroll Jeremiah is commanded to record all the words which he has spoken (Jer 36:2). Some have suggested that Jeremiah had fragmentary written records which he used in compiling the first edition of his book, While this is not impossible it seems more likely that the prophet relied upon his memory, guided and aided, of course, by the Holy Spirit. At any rate the book was to contain excerpts from his twenty-three year ministry.
Gods purpose for issuing the command to commit the divine word to writing is clearly outlined in Jer 36:3. Three goals are in view: (1) that they will hear the word, not in a physical sense, but in a spiritual sense i.e., in the sense of observing, heeding, taking it to heart; (2) that by hearing the word they might thereby be converted; and (3) that God might, in view of their conversion, be able to forgive their iniquity and sin. Perhaps the recent invasion of the area by Nebuchadnezzar and the capture of Jerusalem would make the people more receptive to the threats of destruction by the enemy from the north. At any rate by ordering His prophet to produce a copy of the inspired word, God was endeavoring once again to lead His people to repentance. One has to ask with Isaiah, What could have been done more? (Isa 5:4).
2. The commandment executed (Jer 36:4)
Jeremiah complied with the commandment of the Lord by securing Baruch the son of Neriah to be his scribe. Why did not Jeremiah himself pen the words? It is not necessary to conclude that Jeremiah could not write. Indeed there are hints within the book that the prophet did on occasion take the pen in hand (see Jer 32:10 and Jer 51:60). It may be that Baruch was employed merely to relieve some of the burden of producing such a massive work. Anyone who has undertaken an extensive writing project knows the inestimable value of a good secretary. Josephus relates that Baruch was exceptionally well instructed in his native tongue.” Antiquities X. 9. 1. Baruch, who appeared for the first time in Jer 32:12, seems to have been from a noble family. His brother Seraiah was in the royal service (Jer 51:59) and according to Josephus his grandfather was Maaseiah (2Ch 34:8), the governor of the city.
Just exactly how long it took to complete the writing of the scroll is not stated. It may have been a matter of days or weeks. The writing began in the fourth year of Jehoiakim; the scroll was publicly read in the fifth year and the ninth month. Assuming that the public reading of the scroll took place some time very soon after the writing, some scholars would posit as much as a year or more for the writing process. It is best however to leave the matter of the length of time involved an open question.
THE INDESTRUCTIBLE WORD Jer 36:1-32
As has been repeatedly emphasized thus far, the fourth year of Jehoiakim was a turning point both in the political world and in the ministry of Jeremiah the prophet. This was the year in which the famous battle of Carchemish determined Which power would rule the world for the next half-century or so. It was in this same year that Jeremiah was commissioned by the Lord to permanently record the messages which he had been preaching for the past twenty-three years. It is difficult to determine which came first, the battle or the writing. Jer 36:29 has been submitted as proving that Nebuchadnezzar had not yet won at Carchemish, had not yet swept down through Syria-Palestine. But since Nebuchadnezzar invaded this area so many times it is hardly possible to dogmatically insist that Jer 36:29 must refer to the first invasion. On the other hand, while the battle of Carchemish seems to have occurred early in the fourth year of Jehoiakim, the scroll was not read publicly until the ninth month of the fifth year of his reign (Jer 36:9). One must of course allow for a slow process of writing in those days. But even so it is difficult to see how the beginning of the writing could be pushed back prior to Carchemish in the early part of the preceding year.
Chapter 36 is instructive from several standpoints. First, it throws considerable light upon the history of the Book of Jeremiah. The scroll produced at the dictation of Jeremiah was the first edition of the book. That book was destined to undergo two and possibly three subsequent editions before it finally reached the form in which it is found in the English Bible today. Secondly, this chapter provides a wealth of information about the mechanics of producing a Biblical book. Involved in the process were a roll-book, pen, ink, the selection of a scribe, and the actual dictation. It is not unlikely that the procedures followed here were followed in the case of many other books of the Old Testament, Then too this chapter marks a turning point in the career of Jeremiah. mile he was only a preacher, Jeremiahs influence was limited by and large to his native land. But when he committed his sermons to writing he was destined to influence the world for generations to come.
The Word Written Jer 36:1-4
The first paragraph of chapter 36 relates how Jeremiah received a commandment from the Lord to commit his messages to writing and how the prophet executed that command.
This chapter constitutes an interpolation in the chronological order of Jeremiah’s prophesying. In detail it tells the story of the writing of the words of Jeremiah in a book to which he had incidentally made reference in his introduction to the prophecies of hope. The command had come to him in the fourth year of the reign of Jehoiakim. He had called Baruch, to whom he had committed the deed of the purchase of the field in Anathoth, and had dictated to him all the words committed to him by Jehovah, commanding him when he had written them to go into the house of Jehovah on the fast day and read them in the hearing of the people. He was to do this because Jeremiah was unable to go.
In the fifth year of Jehoiakim’s reign these words were read by Baruch at a fast proclaimed by the people. Micaiah, who heard the reading, found his way into the assembly of the princes and rehearsed to them what he had heard. They sent Jehudi to bring Baruch to them. He came and read to them the same words. Sending Baruch away, charging him to hide with Jeremiah, they retained the roll and told the king of its contents. At last Jehudi read it to the king, who angrily mutilated it and burned it in the brazier. It is possible to mutilate and even destroy a sacred writing, but it is not possible to make of none effect any word of Jehovah. Again Jeremiah dictated the messages to Baruch, adding many words to them, so that the writing was perpetuated, but Jehoiakim was doomed.
a Vain Attempt to Destroy Gods Word
Jer 36:1-32
These written words had been directly given from God, Jer 36:18. The fast was instituted to seek divine help in the approaching conflict with Nebuchadnezzar. But of what good is a fast while the evils of apostasy and disobedience are unredressed? It was against these that Jeremiah protested; and his words were read to a vast concourse of people by Baruch his faithful friend. It was the month of December, and the royal chamber was warmed by a brazier of burning charcoal. As Jehudi read, the godless king cut the roll with a penknife and consigned it to the fire. All down the ages false priests have dealt thus with the Word that condemned them. But a sailor does not escape shipwreck by destroying the chart which indicates the rocks on which he is drifting. Gods words are eternal, though the material on which they are written may perish. He who rejects Gods truth does so at his peril, while God hides His faithful servants in the secret of His presence, secure from the attacks of enemies.
CHAPTER TWENTY
THE FIRST DESTRUCTIVE CRITIC ON RECORD
(Chap. 36)
Among the host of latter-day evils which are sapping the very foundations of Christianity in the minds of the masses, none has been more audaciously impious in its assault upon the truth of GOD than the so-called Higher Criticism.
Under the guise of reverent scholarship seeking to determine the authenticity of books that faith has never questioned, the advocates of this destructive school have not hesitated to cut in pieces the Scriptures of truth, and deliberately seek to falsify the very words of the Lord JESUS CHRIST. He, at least, who knew all things, had no doubts as to the divine authority of every jot and tittle of the Old Testament. It was to Him the inspired utterance of the Holy Ghost.
His apostles, likewise, accepted every part of it – the Law, and the Prophets, and the Psalms – as GOD’s unerring message to His creatures. Nowhere is there the least hesitancy as to owning the full authority of any portion of what was in their day the accepted canon of Holy Scripture.
It has remained for present-day theorists, bereft alike of sound judgment and true godliness, to challenge the genuineness and to impugn the veracity of what our Lord and His first followers (themselves inspired men) received without question as the “oracles of God.” (Rom 3:2)
Terrible indeed must be the judgment of those who seek thus to undermine faith in GOD’s holy Word, and to turn the simple from the ways that be in CHRIST to paths of error and confusion.
And what, alas, will be the eternal state of those who, in many instances, accept all too greedily the poisoned sweetness of these venders of religious confections, glad in heart to be released from a sense of responsibility to GOD and His Word that has been at least a check upon their consciences, when tempted to ways of utter ungodliness?
Rest assured, dear fellow-believer, ours is a faith founded upon an impregnable Rock. Men who refuse it do so to their own destruction.
The wild vagaries of the destructive critics are only the precursors of the great apostasy that is now near at hand. But, thank GOD, ere that awful night of gloomy unbelief settles down upon the minds of the great mass of Christendom, the Church will have been caught away to be with the Lord in the Father’s house. The Holy Spirit, with the Body of CHRIST, leaving this scene, Antichrist will quickly arise, to whom all the vaunted learning of the day, then Christless, will bow the knee; for God shall send them strong delusion, that they should believe the lie: that they all may be judged because they obeyed not the truth, but had pleasure in unrighteousness” (2Th 2:11-12).
These opponents of the important truth of the plenary inspiration of the Scriptures are but the John the Baptists of Antichrist – the preparers of his way.
No honest reader of the Old Testament can fail to see that inspiration is stamped on every page. JESUS affirms it again and again; and when quoting Old Testament Scripture, does so as giving forth the last word on the subject, against which there can be no gainsaying.
Note it in His temptation, where each passage quoted in defeat of Satan is taken from Deuteronomy, the book so much attacked by the critics. He who knew all things questioned neither its reputed authorship, nor its divine authority. Elsewhere He solemnly declares, “The Scripture cannot be broken,” (Joh 10:35) and that “not one jot or tittle shall pass from the Law until all be fulfilled.” (Mat 5:18)
The Scriptures everywhere bear witness of Him, and He is seen as the fulfilment of Scripture. In the wilderness; in His life of service; in His passion on the cross – one thing after another is said or done “that it might be fulfilled which was written” (Mat 1:22) in the Law, the Prophets and the Psalms concerning Him; and in resurrection it is still the same. To the two on the road to Emmaus He opens up the sacred volume, explaining in every scripture the things concerning Himself.
It is the same with the apostles: for Peter, Paul, James or Jude the testimony of Scripture is the end of controversy: “Well spake the Holy Ghost,” (Act 28:25) “The Holy Ghost saith,” (Heb 3:7) “As it is written” (Act 15:15) – such are the expressions used to introduce passages from the three great divisions of the Old Testament. In reverence they received every word as direct from the living GOD.
As to the New Testament writings, the stamp of divine authority rests upon every page. The Lord JESUS said to His apostles, “Whoso heareth you heareth Me.” (Luk 10:16) And John therefore writes, “We are of God: he that knoweth God heareth us; he that is not of God heareth not us. Hereby know we the spirit of truth, and the spirit of error” (1Jn 4:6). In the most solemn way he seals the authority of the book of Revelation, testifying that “if any man shall add unto these things, God shall add unto him the plagues that are written in this book; and if any man shall take away from the words of the book of this prophecy, God shall take away his part out of the book of life, and out of the holy city, and from the things which are written in this book” (Rev 22:18-19).
Peter, too, classes the letters of “our beloved brother Paul” with “the other Scriptures,” (2Pe 3:15-16) thus attesting their divine source; and the great apostle to the Gentiles asserts full inspiration in unmistakable terms: “Which things also we speak, not in the words which man’s wisdom teacheth, but which the Holy Ghost teacheth” (1Co 2:13). And in 1Co 14:37 he writes: “If any man think himself to be a prophet, or spiritual, let him acknowledge that the things that I write unto you are the commandments of the Lord.” To so acknowledge brings lasting blessing; to deny, brings shame and everlasting confusion, after the plaudits of the “liberal-minded” have been hushed for aye!
It is sometimes stated there are portions of Paul’s epistles where he himself disclaims divine authority, but gives his own private opinion. Because of the importance of the subject, and in order to help any reader who may thus be troubled, we will turn aside to notice these passages.
In I Corinthians 7 he writes, as to the relations of husbands and wives, and in the opening verses gives them their true place in the family. In 1Co 7:5-6 he says: “Defraud ye not one the other, except it be with consent for a time, that you may give yourselves to fasting and prayer; and come together again, that Satan tempt you not for your incontinency.” Then he immediately adds: “But I speak this by permission, and not by commandment.” That is, he does not command such times of separation, which in some households might bring in confusion – he simply permits it in cases where it would be profitable. Only an ungodly will could pervert this to teach that the apostle was denying direct inspiration.
1Co 7:12 is supposed to teach similarly. If compared with 1Co 7:10-11 all is clear. “Unto the married I command, yet not I, but the Lord, Let not the wife depart from her husband: but and if she depart, let her remain unmarried, or be reconciled to her husband: and let not the husband put away his wife.” All this was directly commanded by the Lord in Matthew 19. Therefore he says, “Yet not I, but the Lord.” (1Co 7:10) He had already spoken. Now look at the next verse: “But to the rest speak I, not the Lord (that is, the Lord had not heretofore spoken as to what is to follow; the apostle himself declares the mind of GOD regarding it): “If any brother hath a wife that believeth not, and she be pleased to dwell with him,” etc. (1Co 7:12); and here instruction is given for varied cases as they might come up.
Notice the authoritative tone in 1Co 7:17 : “And so ordain I in all the churches.” Here we have both conscious inspiration and authority.
In 1Co 7:25 he writes: “Now concerning virgins I have no commandment of the Lord: yet I give my judgment, as one that hath obtained mercy of the Lord to be faithful.” The italicized portion negatives all thought of partial or non-inspiration. He gives an inspired judgment based on the place GOD has given him. 1Co 7:40 is similar. His was a judgment guided by the Spirit of GOD. There is a difference between revelation and inspiration. Here we have the latter, but not necessarily the former.
As to the universality of his writings, or their application to all believers, the opening verses of the epistle we have been looking at state it most emphatically. He writes “unto the church of God which is at Corinth, to them that are sanctified in Christ Jesus, with all that in every place call upon the name of Jesus Christ our Lord, both theirs and ours” (1Co 1:2).
Could words be plainer? Who, that is at all subject to the Scriptures, would limit the application of a letter so addressed?
Note, too, how he speaks of himself in the introduction to the Romans. “By whom we have received grace and apostleship, for obedience to the faith among all nations, for His name” (1Co 7:5).
And so one might go on from epistle to epistle and point out similar evidences of his consciousness that what he wrote was binding on the consciences of all saints, because inspired by the Holy Ghost.
Let us turn now to the chapter before us, which gives us the first recorded instance of this unhallowed mutilation and rejection of the written Word of GOD – now so common. The exceeding importance of the subject alone has made so long a digression permissible.
In the fourth year of Jehoiakim, Jeremiah was instructed by the Lord to take a roll of a book and to write all that He had spoken against both Israel and Judah and the surrounding nations, from the beginning of the prophet’s ministry in the days of Josiah unto the time when so commanded (Jer 36:1-2).
We read of no writings of his prior to this; the letters of chap. 29 having been penned some years later. All his messages had been delivered orally. Now they are to be gathered together in the form of a book, so that the king and the house of Judah may the better consider what GOD had said.
The Lord adds, “It may be that the house of Judah will hear all the evil which I purpose to do unto them; that they may return every man from his evil way; that I may forgive their iniquity and their sin” (Jer 36:3).
How GOD longed for their recovery! He had no delight in their judgment. Much more readily would He have granted forgiveness had there been any evidence of repentance and contrition of heart.
Accordingly, Baruch wrote “all the words of the Lord” (Jer 36:4) at Jeremiah’s dictation. The prophet himself was “shut up” (Jer 36:5) (in what way we know not), and could not go to the house of the Lord, but Baruch is sent to read all that has been written to the assembled multitudes, upon the occasion of a fast which had been proclaimed because of the wretched conditions prevailing, when all the cities of Judah would be represented in Jerusalem. Gathered thus for humiliation and the afflicting of their souls, it might be they would give ear to the Word of GOD, and turn from their manifold iniquities when they knew the great anger of the Lord and what He had pronounced against them (Jer 36:6-7).
This fast was to take place in the ninth month of Jehoiakim’s fifth year. On that day the son of Neriah repaired to the temple and read in the book before all the people, at the door of the new gate of the Lord’s house, standing in the entrance to the chamber of Gemariah the son of Shaphan the scribe.
The son of this Gemariah, Michaiah by name, seems to have been deeply affected by the words to which he had listened. His heart and mind full of them, he went down to the scribe’s chamber, of the royal palace, where he found a company of the chief men assembled. Among them were his own father, and a scribe known as Elishama, together with other leaders of the people, and all the princes. To them the young man gave an outline of all he had heard from Baruch’s reading of the roll.
They were evidently concerned, for the time at least, for they sent at once to summon the servant of the prophet to bring the book and come to their council-hall; and having come, they said, “Sit down, and read it in our ears.” (Jer 36:15)
So for the second time that day Baruch read the solemn messages, with the result that they were afraid, and said to the reader, “We will surely tell the king of these words.” (Jer 36:16)
They desired to be certain that the writing was indeed what it professed to be, a series of messages from the Lord through Jeremiah; so they asked Baruch, “Tell us now, How didst thou write all these words at his mouth?” He replied, “He pronounced all these words unto me with his mouth, and I wrote them with ink in the book.” (Jer 36:17-18)
Evidently realizing something of the importance of the contents of the roll, yet fearing the king’s wrath upon the promulgators of it, and being solicitous as to the prophet’s welfare, the princes warned Baruch, saying, “Go, hide thee, thou and Jeremiah; and let no man know where ye be” (Jer 36:19).
Laying up the roll in the chamber of Elishama, the scribe, the princes and chief men hurried themselves to the king’s palace, and gave to Jehoiakim the gist of the words it contained. Jehudi is sent at once to fetch it, and began to read it in the presence of the king and of the princes who stood beside him.
The reader had but gone over three or four leaves when the impatient monarch “cut it with a penknife,” (Jer 36:23) or a “scribe’s knife,” and deliberately cast it into the fire before him. In vain three of the princes besought the king not to burn the sacred roll. The king persisted in his impiety; neither did he nor his servants manifest any fear or concern for the affront offered to the Lord.
On the contrary, an order was issued for the arrest of both Baruch and Jeremiah, but the Lord cared for His servants, and “hid them” (Jer 36:26).
The king thus put himself on record as the first mutilator of the Word of GOD recorded in Scripture.
Alas, how many have followed in his steps since that day, when, all unknown to himself and his foolhardy friends, he sealed his doom by his willful rejection of the inspired message. The “scribe’s knife” has often been used since to mutilate and destroy the Word of truth – aye, to the final sorrow of every one that does it! Heaven and earth may pass away; the Word of GOD, never! Truth cannot be destroyed; it is unalterable, and the will of impious “scholarship” can never set it aside.
The emissaries of Rome, also, sought to make an end of it in the days of papal persecutions.
Thousands of Bibles were consigned to the flames, but they became as the seed from which millions of copies sprang. Infidelity has raged and done its worst to discredit it. Still the Bible is triumphant. Any other book, so treated, would long ago have been but a memory, and have disappeared from the face of the earth: but GOD has cared for it.
It has remained for so-called Christian scholars to emulate Romanism and Atheism, under the guise of legitimate criticism, in knifing the sacred volume and consigning large portions of it to the fire of their cheap scorn and derision, as unreliable and uninspired; but they have yet to learn that the book they criticize is, itself, the supreme critic.
“For the Word of God is quick and powerful, and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit and of the joints and marrow, and is a discerner (literally, critic) of the thoughts and intents of the heart. Neither is there any creature that is not manifest in His sight; but all things are naked and opened unto the eyes of Him with whom we have to do” (Heb 4:12-13).
Of the Word of GOD, as of the person of CHRIST, it may be said: “Whosoever shall fall on this stone shall be broken; but on whomsoever it shall fall, it will grind him to powder” (Mat 21:44).
In that solemn day when the “books are opened” (Rev 20:12) Jehoiakim will find, unharmed by the flames, the roll he wantonly sought to destroy brought out as a witness against his guilty soul; and those who now, whatever their profession, assail the truth, seeking to discredit the Scriptures as the very Word of GOD, will be judged then by the very portions they now refuse.
Who can conceive the awful awakening of men in that day who have filled Christian pulpits and doled out veneered infidelity to the ignorant and the blind, to the destruction of themselves and their willing hearers – what an awakening, when they stand face to face with Him who sits upon “the great white throne,” (Rev 20:11) whose Word they have dared to impugn!
They will behold in the glory:
– The “mythical Abraham” who believed GOD;
– The “unknown” Isaiah, who testified to the coming of the Lord JESUS in terms so unmistakably clear;
– The very Jonah whose story they had laughed to scorn; and
– The Daniel whose experiences they had classed with fables.
All these veritable, living men, in the abode of light and bliss; but themselves, who ridiculed their very existence, alas, cast into outer darkness forever, nevermore to doubt the Word of GOD!
Jehoiakim’s effort to destroy the Scriptures, like all others since, could only be utterly futile.
The Word of the Lord came again to Jeremiah to “take another roll, and write in it all the former words that were in the first roll, which Jehoiakim the king of Judah had burned” (Jer 36:27-28).
Not only would the prophecies which had been consigned to the flames be re-written and preserved forever, but much more was to be added.
As for the impious monarch, condign punishment must be meted out to him, that others might learn not to trifle with or reject the Word of GOD.
“Then shalt thou say to Jehoiakim king of Judah, Thus saith the Lord: Thou hast burned this roll, saying, Why hast thou written therein, saying, The king of Babylon shall certainly come and destroy this land, and shall cause to cease from thence man and beast? Therefore thus saith the Lord of Jehoiakim king of Judah: He shall have none to sit upon the throne of David: and his dead body shall be cast out in the day to the heat, and in the night to the frost” (Jer 36:29-30).
It may have seemed to some that this declaration, so far as his having none to sit upon David’s throne was concerned, had signally failed, when upon his captivity his son Jehoiakim, or Jeconiah, ascended that throne. But after an inglorious reign of but three months and ten days he was carried away to Babylon with a great number of the people, in accordance with the doom pronounced upon him by this same prophet, in Jer 22:30.
Not one thing should fail of all that the Lord had pronounced against Judah and Jerusalem. To refuse to read the roll and to destroy it in the fire did not in any sense annul it (Jer 36:31).
In accordance with this word, “Jeremiah took another roll, and gave it to Baruch the scribe, the son of Neriah, who wrote therein from the mouth of Jeremiah all the words of the book which Jehoiakim king of Judah had burned in the fire: and there were added besides unto them many like words” (Jer 36:32).
~ end of chapter 20 ~
Jer 36:23
I. The case of the Rechabites is the extreme of obedience; the story of Jehoiakim’s burning the roll represents the extreme of disobedience. Between these two cases, thus brought into contrast with one another, almost within the same page, the conduct of the great mass of mankind is always hovering. Few equal the extreme of obedience set forth on the one hand, as few the extreme of disobedience set forth on the other. Thousands who disobey the Bible every day would shrink from the thought of burning it in utter defiance. Thousands who will do what they see to be just and reasonable will make no scruple of breaking a command which seems to them, in its own nature, indifferent.
II. That we are almost all of us, old and young, wanting in the principle of obedience, might be concluded pretty surely from the simple fact that we do not like the very word. The word “independence,” which is the opposite to obedience, is, on the contrary, a great favourite with us; we consider that it is at once delightful and honourable. Tracing this up to its origin, it is certainly in part, nothing but evil; for it is made up largely of pride, and pride is ignorance of God. What is called the feeling of independence, is admired chiefly because it shows the absence of fear. But if obedience were rendered, not from fear, but from principle, it would then be nobler, because it would imply greater self-denial than the feeling of independence; for the feeling of independence is, in other words, a wish to have our own way, a wish in which there is nothing at all noble or admirable, except in as far as it is exercised in the face of the fear of danger. Set aside the existence of fear, and independence becomes no better than self-will; while obedience becomes self-denial for the sake of others-that is benevolence or charity.
III. There can be no obedience to God without virtue and duty, but the word implies something more; it implies doing our duty because God commands it; it implies a deep and abiding sense of our relation to Him; that we are not, nor ever can be, independent beings but dependent creatures; and that, by practising obedience to our Maker, by doing His will because it is His will, and because we love Him, we shall be raised to a higher and more endearing name; no longer creatures, but children.
T. Arnold, Sermons, vol. iii., p. 210.
Jer 36:23
I. Why has God given us the Bible? Not to bewilder us, not to tempt our curiosity, not to found rival sects, but to bring us to Himself to obtain forgiveness of iniquity and sin. The one object of the Bible is the salvation of mankind.
II. Man is so unwilling to hear anything unpleasant or disagreeable about himself that he gets into a wrong temper before he actually knows what God’s object is. Jehoiakim did not hear the whole roll. Did any man ever destroy the Bible who knew it wholly? The difficulty is in the “three or four leaves.”
III. Men have not destroyed revelation when they have destroyed the Bible. The penknife cannot reach its spirit, the fire cannot touch its life. The history of the Bible is one of the proofs of its inspiration.
IV. The desire to cut the Bible with the penknife and to cast it into the fire, is quite intelligible, because in a sense profoundly natural.
V. This desire to mutilate the Holy Word shows itself in various ways, some of them apparently innocent*; others of them dignified with fine names, and claiming attention as the last developments of human progress. Human nature shows itself most vividly in the treatment of the Bible.
Parker, The Ark of God, p. 217; see also Penny Pulpit, No. 899.
Notice some lessons which this subject suggests.
I. Those who in their early days have resisted holy influences, generally turn out the most wicked of men. When a man deliberately tramples on conviction, and resists the dealings of God’s spirit, he uses the most effectual means to sear his conscience and harden his heart.
II. If a man’s religion is not genuine and heart deep, it often happens that troubles and calamities only drive him further away from God. What effect had all his misfortunes and disasters on Jehoiakim? Did they soften him? Did they incline him to a better course of life? Not a bit. He grew worse than ever.
III. As the heart gets hardened in sin, there is a growing unwillingness to listen to the voice of God. As soon as a young man begins an evil course, and resolves to take his fill of sinful pleasures, he acquires a hatred of his Bible, and a disinclination to attend the house of God. If he cannot silence God’s ministers, he will keep as far as possible from them, and shut his ears against all good counsel.
J. Thain Davidson, The City Youth, p. 225.
References: Jer 36:3.-Homiletic Quarterly, vol. i., p. 551. Jer 36:22, Jer 36:23.-J. Cox, Expositions, 2nd series, p. 192. Jer 36:23.-Preacher’s Monthly, vol. iv., p. 231; D. Moore, Penny Pulpit, No. 3504.
Jer 36:24
The conduct which we read of in the text seems to be nothing out of the way, nothing strange, nothing which we cannot enter into and cannot explain, but only an instance of what goes on now, and always has gone on since the beginning of the world; it is an instance of the hardening power of sin.
I. This is what makes a sin, even a little sin, enormously great when considered as the seed of the whole crop of sins afterwards, even as a single seed of the wrong kind may be enough to overrun a field with thistles. A single sin is but the leader of a whole band, and when once the barrier has been broken, a legion of others swarm in; and a single sin is but the beginning of the hardening process, is but the beginning of a state of disease which ends in utter blindness and want of feeling. This I understand by the deceitfulness of sin to which the Apostle refers its hardening power; it is deceitful because what we call a small sin appears trifling, because we judge of sins merely in ourselves, without considering to what they lead; if in war a general were to see a few of the enemy’s soldiers straggling over the hills, he might say that they were so few that they were not worth considering, but would he say so? or would he not rather look upon them as the forerunners of a great army; would he not prepare at once to resist the hosts of enemies which he must know lurked behind? In like manner the sins of childhood are the forerunners of the great army of the world, the flesh, and the devil, which comes up in maturer years; and the only safe course is to look upon no sin as trifling, but to root out every enemy, whether small or great, lest perhaps we allow our enemy to gain such strength as shall end in our overthrow.
II. There is such a thing as being gospel-hardened; there is such a thing as listening to God’s word, and to preaching, without doing, until the sound of the most solemn truths becomes as useless as that of a tinkling cymbal, until the sword of the Spirit is unable to cut or pierce. Persons who have become thus are like the king of Judah and his servants, who hear the threatened vengeance of Almighty God, and yet are not afraid, nor rend their garments.
Bishop Harvey Goodwin, Parish Sermons, 1st series, p. 222.
References: Jer 36:24.-J. E. Vaux, Sermon Notes, 2nd series, p. 36; Plain Sermons by Contributors to “Tracts for the Times,” vol. i., p. 177.
Jer 36:32
I. Baruch, the friend and amanuensis of Jeremiah, was directed in the fourth year of Jehoiakim, king of Judah, to write all the prophecies of Jeremiah delivered up to that period, and to read them to the people, which he did, from a window in the Temple, on two solemn occasions. But where was Jeremiah himself? He was under sentence of death, and the people were infuriated against him. He was in so much danger from the animosity of his opponents that it would have been imprudent for him to appear in public. This prudence was indeed one of the marks of Jeremiah’s piety, as well as his wisdom. Our life and health are not our own. We are stewards of God, and to Him we are accountable for the preservation of the life which He has given us until the time shall come when He shall Himself take it.
II. Baruch could probably perform the work in hand better than Jeremiah himself. Had Jeremiah appeared in public, the people would have been so exasperated that they would not even have heard him, for he would have come before them as one under sentence of death, and in defiance of the advice of those powerful friends who would by his conduct have been equally with himself exposed to danger. Wisdom and sound policy are parts of piety. We are not only to do the work which is providentially assigned to us, but to do it in the best and most effective manner.
III. Jeremiah foretold destruction to the city unless the people amended their ways. The people did not deny that l Jeremiah was an inspired prophet, but they would not heed what he said, and seemed to think that if they prohibited him from speaking, or if they destroyed his book, they would be exempted from responsibility or danger. But the decree of God remained; the words of Jeremiah were fearfully fulfilled. The fact remains the same, whether we believe it or not. The Bible and the preacher do not alter the fact or make the fact.
W. F. Hook, Parish Sermons, p. 165.
References: Jer 36:32.-J. Keble, Sermons for Sundays after Trinity, Part II., p. 176. Jer 38:6.-J. Kennedy, Christian World Pulpit, vol. ii., p. 124.
CHAPTER 36
The Indestructibility of the Word of God
1. The writing of the roll (Jer 36:1-4)
2. The reading of the roll (Jer 36:4-20)
3. The king cuts and burns the roll (Jer 36:21-26)
4. The indestructibility of the Word of God (Jer 36:27-32)
Jer 36:1-4. Once more we are taken back to the fourth year of Jehoiakim. Jeremiah is now commanded to commit all the words Jehovah had spoken to him to writing. It was for the purpose that the people might hear of all the evil and that they might yet consider it and turn to the Lord to be forgiven. How gracious and merciful He is! He then dictated all the words to Baruch, who wrote them down. But, asks a critic, how could he remember all he had spoken? The same Spirit who communicated the messages to him, re-communicated them to the prophet.
Jer 36:4-20. Jeremiah was shut in, which, however, does not mean that he was a prisoner (see Jer 36:19); it probably means that he was not permitted to enter the LORDs house on account of some ceremonial impurity. So he sent Baruch, his amanuensis, to read the scroll to the people on the fasting day, and when all the people had come together, Baruch read the roll at the entry of the new gate. Michaiah, one of the sons of Gemariah, was deeply moved by what he had heard, went to the place where the princes sat in counsel and told them what he had heard from Baruchs lips. Baruch was then commanded to appear before the princes to read the roll to them. What they heard frightened them. They declared they would tell the king.
Jer 36:21-26. The king sent for the roll. The king listened to but a few of the leaves. Then, energized by the devil, he pulled out his penknife, cut the roll, and, to make sure that the roll would be destroyed, he cast it into the open fire, and with keen satisfaction he watched till the roll was consumed. Elnathan, Delaiah, and Gemariah tried to keep him from doing this evil deed, but he refused to listen to them. These three had at least some reverence for the Word of God, and therefore the Holy Spirit records their names. The king was not satisfied with this. His satanic anger was so aroused that he wanted to have Baruch and Jeremiah apprehended. Like the mad king Saul, he probably thought of killing them both. But the Lord hid them.
What Jehoiakim did, has been done over and over again. It is being done today as never before in the history of Christendom. It is being done by the destructive critics, in colleges and universities; it is done by the men who have produced the Shorter New Testament and the Shorter Old Testament, by those who advocate an abridged Bible, by others who, like the English writer Wells, want a new Bible. The same power of darkness is behind all these wicked attempts to mutilate the Word of God. Jehoiakims work is nothing in comparison with these twentieth century infidels, because these aim at the most precious, the most blessed revelation of God, the doctrine of Christ. Their condemnation will be far greater than that of the Jewish king.
Jer 36:27-32. But did the king destroy the Word of God? One might just as well speak of destroying God Himself. Neither God nor His Word can ever be affected by the efforts of men inspired by the enemy of the truth of God. The Word of God endureth forever. It is, like God, eternal. How the Bibles have been burned a thousand times over again! In pagan Rome and papal Rome Satan has raged against the Bible. His Word lives on. And now the devil, camouflaged as an angel of light, in the guise of devout scholarship and reverent criticism tries it again. His Word lives on! Emperors and popes, philosophers and infidels who attacked the Bible are gone; the Bible is still with us. Jeremiah is told to take another roll. Once more the Lord dictates the same words to him, and Jeremiah again dictates them to Baruch, with many like words, including a judgment message of the miserable end of the wicked king.
Jer 25:1, Jer 35:1, 2Ki 24:1, 2Ki 24:2
Reciprocal: 2Ch 36:5 – Jehoiakim Jer 26:1 – General Jer 36:9 – in the fifth Jer 39:15 – while Jer 45:1 – when Jer 46:2 – in the Eze 19:6 – he went Zec 5:1 – roll
The Word of the Lord
Jer 36:1-32
INTRODUCTORY WORDS
We want to show you how it was that Jeremiah spoke not his own words, but the words of the Lord. In order to do this, we want to place before you Scripture and verse, showing that the word of the Lord came to the Prophet.
Jer 1:1-2 To whom the word of the Lord came.
Jer 1:4 The word of the Lord came unto me.
Jer 1:9 The Lord put forth His hand, and touched my mouth. And the Lord said unto me, Behold, I have put My words in thy mouth.
Jer 1:11 The word of the Lord came unto me, saying.
Jer 1:12 Then said the Lord unto me.
Jer 1:13 The word of the Lord came unto me the second time.
Jer 1:14 Then the Lord said unto me.
Jer 1:15 For, lo, I will * * saith the Lord.
Jer 1:17 Arise, and speak unto them all that I command thee.
Jer 2:1 Moreover the word of the Lord came to me.
Jer 2:3 Saith the Lord.
Jer 2:4 Hear ye the word of the Lord.
Jer 2:5 Thus saith the Lord.
Jer 2:9 I will yet plead with you, saith the Lord.
Jer 2:12 Be ye very desolate, saith the Lord.
Jer 2:19 My fear is not in thee, saith the Lord God of Hosts.
Jer 2:22 Thine iniquity is marked before me, saith the Lord God.
The climax of these opening chapters, and of the chapters which follow, is in the part we are to study for today. Jer 36:1-32 shows how God gave Jeremiah a special message, which the Prophet wrote in a Book.
We cannot understand how anyone can reject the fact that “holy men of God spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost.” God did, indeed, put His words in their mouth. The result is, that when we are reading the Bible, we are reading the words which God gave us, both for instruction and correction, reproof and doctrine.
1. The Word of God is forever settled in Heaven. It is an unchanging Word.
You remember how Pilate said to the Jews, who wanted to change the superscription on the Cross, “What I have written I have written.” A thousand times more, may we say that God’s Word stays written, as it was written.
If some one urges you that God’s Word is, therefore, not up to date, we hasten to reply, that when God wrote the Word, He was the Eternal God, and, when He wrote, all the future lay before Him. He knew, therefore, how to make His Word applicable to every age.
By way of illustration, we call your attention to a seven times repeated statement, found in Rev 2:3. The expression is, “He that hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit saith (is saying) unto the Churches.” In each case, the expression was written to one local Church, but the word is applicable to all churches. When the Spirit spoke to Ephesus, He spoke to us. Thus it is that the whole Bible carries a message to the whole world, of every age and clime.
2. The Word of God is forever authoritative. When Jesus Christ met the devil in the temptation in the wilderness, He unsheathed the sword which is the Word of God, and said, “It is written.” He took the fifth Book of the Bible, which had been written for centuries, and with it, overthrew Satan in His (Christ’s) own day.
We are willing to grant that the Word of God has special applications to the people to whom it was written; we are unwilling to grant that the Word written, to whosoever it may have been written, has no message for us, upon whom the end of the ages have come.
Take, for instance, the Book of Hebrews. The Holy Spirit continually reaches back into the story of the Children of Israel, their wilderness journeyings and their Canaan rest, and uses those events as types for the people who live at this very moment. Remember, the admonition in Hebrews is, “And so much the more, as ye see the day approaching.”
3. The Word of God, being authoritative, is written to be obeyed. One expression in the Bible should always be remembered, “Be ye doers of the Word, and not hearers only.”
I. THE WORD OF GOD DOES NOT COVER SIN, AND PROPHESY SMOOTH THINGS (Jer 36:1-2)
1. Jeremiah was told to write the very words that God had spoken to him. It would be absolutely unfair to Jeremiah to say that Jeremiah said this, or, that Jeremiah said that.
As the scene of this chapter opens, Jeremiah was in prison because of what he had prophesied. Jeremiah was in prison because of his faithfulness and fidelity to God. He was only telling what he had been told to tell. He was not to blame for what he said.
The kings of Israel and Judah may have blamed him for what he said. However, if he had not said what God bade him to say, he would have been under the condemnation of God.
It is in the Book of Jeremiah, that we have these words, “He that hath My Word, let him speak My Word faithfully.”
There were certain prophets in Jeremiah’s time, of whom God said, “Behold, I am against the prophets, saith the Lord, that steal My Words every one from his neighbour.” Again God said, “I am against them that prophesy false dreams * * and cause My people to err by their lies, and by their lightness.”
2. Jeremiah was told to write words of condemnation. Here is the statement of Jer 36:2. “Write therein all the words that I have spoken unto thee against Israel, and against Judah.”
It may be more pleasant to prophesy smooth things, and to preach lies. However, it is written that if we fail to warn the people, God will require their blood at our hands.
Think you, that the preacher of today should soft-pedal God’s Word, concerning the present age? Think you, that he should cover up his testimony concerning the Divinely revealed conditions of the last days?
There is just one thing for us to do, and that is to preach the preaching that He bids us.
II. GOD’S PURPOSE IN HIS WARNINGS (Jer 36:3)
1. God’s warning messages are His call to men to repent. When Jonah was commanded to go over to Nineveh and preach, “Yet forty days, and Nineveh shall be overthrown,” his message was given that the Ninevites might repent. And repent they did. For this cause, God, for the time, held back their destruction.
There is no joy in the heart of the Lord, in proclaiming dark forebodings. God, however, does not want to destroy men. He would that all might repent and come to the knowledge of the truth.
God warns His people the same way, and for the same reason that we would warn our child. If we saw an auto-mobile about to crush our loved one, we would lustily cry to the child to flee.
God speaks to us of the coming destruction which awaits this godless age, in order that we may enter into the Covert from the storm of His fiery wrath, and indignation.
2. When men reject God’s warning, they show that they are worthy cf all the judgments which God is about to send upon them. If a man refuses to be warned, he has no one to blame but himself. If he rushes on madly into the vortex of disaster and of death, why should he be pitied?
How plaintive was that word from the lips of our Lord, “O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, thou that killest the Prophets, and stonest them which are sent unto thee, how often would I have gathered thy children together, even as a hen gathereth her chickens under her wings, and ye would not”!
These words may well be placed side by side with the words of our key verse: “It may be that the house of Judah will hear all the evil * * that they may return every man from his evil way; that I may forgive their iniquity and their sin.”
God would spare them-they would not be spared-God could not spare them. For this cause, it was written: “Behold, your house is left unto you desolate.”
If the sinner, or the saint, refuses to repent, even God can do naught but send His judgments upon them.
III. PROCLAIMING THE TRUTH WHEN ENDANGERED WITH MARTYRDOM (Jer 36:5-7)
1. Jeremiah hastened to obey the Divine command. He knew that he could not, personally, go before the people, as he had of yore; therefore he called Baruch to go and read the roll, which he had just written from Jeremiah’s mouth, even the words of the Lord.
We thank God that He has His heroes; His men who are not afraid to preach the truth.
Bear in mind, readers, that we are not urging upon you, or anyone, to wave the red flag of warning just for the thrill of the shock that it will cause. We are not calling upon you to run ahead of the Lord, but to faithfully proclaim His Truth.
God’s martyrs may not now be called upon to lay down their lives for their faith. They may, however, be called upon to walk a pathway of isolation, and of degradation.
Nevertheless, the spirit of the martyrs should prevail. We read, “They loved not their lives unto the death.” Let us cast our lots with that group of faithful witnesses.
2. Jeremiah sought to instill into the heart of Baruch, the spirit of compassion, as he read the Word. To Baruch, Jeremiah said what God had said to him, “It may be they will present their supplication before the Lord, and will return every one from his evil way.”
When we preach the judgments of God, we must not preach them as Jonah preached, for Jonah wanted Nineveh to be destroyed.
We need to know both the passion and the compassion of Christ toward sinners before we pronounce God’s judgments.
In the twenty-third chapter of Matthew the darkest anathemas which ever fell from the lips of the Master were pronounced against the scribes and the Pharisees. The whole chapter trembles under the thunderings of that oft-repeated word, “Woe!”
If, however, we want to get the full heart of Christ as He pronounced the “woes,” we must not fail to read the verse we quoted before, “O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, * * how often would I have gathered thy children together.” There were sighs and sobs in the heart of the Lord as He spake His judgments.
IV. FASTING BEFORE THE LORD WITHOUT REPENTANCE (Jer 36:9-10; Jer 36:15-16; Jer 36:18)
1. The fast is called. Jer 36:9 tells us that they proclaimed a fast before the Lord to all people in Jerusalem, and to all people that came from the cities of Judah. It was at this fast that Baruch read all the words in the ears of the people. The result of the reading of the words, we will note a little later on.
The scene before us is unmistakably sad. There was a people coming to worship before the Lord, even with fasting, and yet, they were rejecting the words of the Lord.
In that same remarkable twenty-third chapter of Matthew, the Lord in His anathemas said, “Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye devour widows’ houses, and for a pretence make long prayers: therefore ye shall receive the greater damnation.”
Again the Lord said, “Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye pay tithe of mint and anise and cummin, and have omitted the weightier matters of the Law, judgment, mercy, and faith.”
Isn’t it unspeakably sad that people can go to the house of God and carry out every ritual of a sacred service, and every form of a holy worship, and yet, go on in their evil ways? They come as the people come; they hear the Words of the Lord, but they never do them. They sit as the people sit, they bow as the people bow, with their mouth they show much love, but their heart goeth after covetousness. The Lord is unto them, as a very lovely song, of one that hath a pleasant voice, and can play well on an instrument: for they hear His Words, but they do them not.
2. The Word is set aside. There is not one suggestion in our chapter that the people who heard the Word of God wept, or prayed for mercy. There is nothing to even suggest that they were ready to turn from their evil ways.
Oh, church of God, awake! fall upon thy face and repent of thy evil ways, lest the Lord will come upon thee, and remove thy candlestick!
V. THE PRINCES TAKE CHARGE (Jer 36:14-19)
1. The voice of the leaders. When the princes of Judah heard of what Baruch had read to the people, they sent for him. So Baruch took in his hand the roll, and came in unto them. They said unto him, “Sit down now, and read it in our ears.” So Baruch read it in their ears.
We can almost imagine that we see some dear young preacher, who has the courage of his convictions, as he stands before his congregation and preaches the Word.
We can almost see that committee of leaders from the local church, as they bring the young man before them and say, “Tell us what, you preached to the masses.”
These leaders assume that they have the right to either approve or disapprove his testimonies.
They may say to him what these princes said to Baruch, “Tell us now, How didst thou write all these words at his mouth?” Baruch quickly replied, “He pronounced all these words unto me with his mouth, and I wrote them with ink in the book.”
Did the princes say “God hath spoken, and we must hear”? Not at all. They said, “We will surely tell the king of all these words.” Then to Baruch they said, “Go, hide thee, thou and Jeremiah; and let no man know where ye be.” The princes were sure that the king, higher up than they, would be sore displeased.
2. Who is the Head of the Church? Is there some one other than God who has authority over the men to whom God gives His message? Has God put the princes, or the king, or anybody else, over the local heralder of the Truth?
Are men to preach the preachings that God gives, or the preachings that men O. K.?
Are men to leave unsaid any word which God commanded them to say, simply because some one opposes them?
Are men to preach, and some one to report their preachings to the bishop, or the king, that he may pass upon it?
Are men to preach, and then to run and hide themselves, for fear of their popularity?
Nay, we will recognize but one Head of the Church, and one Master, and we will preach the preachings that He gives us.
VI. REACTION OF THE KING (Jer 36:20-26)
1. The new reader. When the princes came before the king, they told him of the roll, which Jeremiah had written from the Lord, and which Baruch had read before them. Then the king ordered the Word brought in, and Jehudi read it in the ears of the king, and in the ears of all the princes which stood beside the king. The men commissioned of God had been set aside, and Jehudi placed in their stead.
2. The reaction of the king. In Jer 36:23, we read, “And it came to pass, that when Jehudi had read three or four leaves, he cut it with the penknife, and cast it into the fire that was on the hearth, until all the roll was consumed in the fire that was on the hearth.”
This deed was by no means done without the approval, and perhaps, the command of the king.
If the readers are amazed that anyone should dare to penknife God’s holy Word, and to cast it into the fire, let them remember that the precious Word of God, the inerrant Word of Truth, is being penknifed all over the world today. It is being cast out, as a book of old wives’ tales, and of useless fables. Its promises are counted as worthless, and its warnings as folly.
Of old, Christ said to Judas, “Friend, wherefore art thou come?” Judas, the supposed friend and acknowledged comrade of the Lord, then betrayed Him with a kiss. Jesus became of old, a “Stranger unto [His] brethren.” The Jews who should have opened their hearts to receive Him, cried out, “Away with Him.” “Let Him be crucified.”
3. A remarkable statement. In Jer 36:24, we read, “Yet they were not afraid, nor rent their garments, neither the king, nor any of his servants that heard all these words.” How is it possible that the Word of God can thus be treated with contumely? First, they penknife it. Then they cast it into the fire, and then they mock it. They fear not. How evil is the heart of man!
VII. GOD MOVES ON THE SCENE (Jer 36:26-32)
1. The Lord hid Baruch and Jeremiah from the wrath of the king. The man who will destroy the Word of God, will seek to destroy the man who preaches the Word of God. The Lord not only hid these men who wrote the roll, protecting them from the wrath of the king, but there is another thing that He did.
2. The Lord ordered Jeremiah to pronounce a curse against the king. “Thou shalt say to Jehoiakim king of Judah, Thus saith the Lord; Thou hast burned this roll, saying, Why hast thou written therein, saying, The king of Babylon shall certainly come and destroy this land, and shall cause to cease from thence man and beast?”
This verse gives us our first insight as to some of the definite words in the roll. The charge to king Jehoiakim continues: “Therefore thus saith the Lord of Jehoiakim king of Judah; He shall have none to sit upon the throne of David: and his dead body shall be cast out in the day to the heat, and in the night to the frost. And I will punish him and his seed and his servants for their iniquity; and I will bring upon them, and upon the inhabitants of Jerusalem, and upon the men of Judah, all the evil that I have pronounced against them; but they hearkened not.”
Think you, that he who penknifes the Word of God, and decries its message, shall escape the judgment of God? Against the modernists of today-the “certain men” described in the Book of Jude, who have crept into the church unawares, and have turned the grace of God into lasciviousness, “denying the only Lord God, and our Lord Jesus Christ”;-against these God has said, “to whom is reserved the blackness of darkness for ever.”
Jer 36:1. The preceding chapter gave a general statement as to the date of the writing, but this gives the year which is the fourth of the reign of Jehoiakim. According to 2Ki 24:1 that was the first year of the great 70-year captivity.
Jer 36:1. And it came to pass, &c. Jeremiah here inserts a history of some things which related to, or had a connection with, his prophecies; (as we find Isaiah did with regard to his;) and, accordingly, we are here informed how they came to be written, namely, by the express order of God, that they might stand upon record before the things foretold came to pass; so that there might be no room to say he had never prophesied such and such things, or that the prophecies were made after the things they pretended to foretel had happened. In the fourth year of Jehoiakim this word came unto Jeremiah It is uncertain whether what is related in this chapter happened during the siege of Jerusalem by Nebuchadnezzar, (for the city was besieged in the fourth year of Jehoiakim, 2Ki 24:1-2,) or after the siege, when Jehoiakim was escaped from the hand of Nebuchadnezzar. It seems probable from what follows, particularly from Jer 36:9, that it happened at or near the end of the fourth year, when Nebuchadnezzar was retired. For Jeremiah says nothing of the siege, and he orders Baruch to read his prophecies before an assembly of the people who had come to Jerusalem out of their cities, Jer 36:6, which certainly implies that Jerusalem was not then in a state of siege. See Calmet.
Jer 36:1. The fourth year of Jehoiakim. Though this chapter seems out of its place, yet it may not be so, but may be a reference to past events.
Jer 36:2. Take thee a roll of a book. Ancient volumes of parchment were rolled, and sometimes on a staff. The writing was in columns from the right to the left, so that the reader could with ease coil up in his right hand what he had read.
Jer 36:3. It may be that the house of Judah will hearthat I may forgive their iniquity. This was, in fact, the last summons to the rebellious court of king Zedekiah. Bad as their affairs were, an unfeigned act of fasting and prayer would even then have saved the nation.
John Chrysostom, on this passage asserts, that the divine prescience is not the cause of sin. God says, perhaps. Was he then ignorant of the future? Did he not know whether the Jews would hear; he who knows all events before they happen; he who searches the hearts and tries the reins; he who penetrates the secrets of man, and before whose eyes all things are manifest, and without a veil?
Let us examine why he says, it may be, or perhaps. Had he said, they will hear, without adding perhaps, it had been untrue, seeing that they did not hearken. Had he said what was true, they will not hear, it would have been in vain to send a prophet to men who would not hear. This is our first reason, which implies a second. If he here employed a contingent or doubtful language, it is that mankind may not believe that the prescience of God forces the human will; it is that no one might say, that what God has foreseen must of necessity occur, as some men affirm of Judas.
Jesus Christ, they say, foresaw that Judas would prove a traitor, and for that reason Judas was a traitor. What follywhat blindness, oh man! Prescience is not the cause of sin. God forbid. It never necessitates future actions. It merely gives us to perceive them. Judas was not a traitor because Jesus Christ foresaw it; but Jesus Christ foresaw the treason, because Judas would commit the crime. Lest therefore you should say, that God having foretold the obduration of the Jews, implied that he had shut up against them all the avenues of repentance, God himself here anticipates your objection by saying to his prophet, It may be that the house of Judah will hear, that I may forgive their iniquity.Homily on the obscurity of the Prophets.
Jer 36:5. I am shut up, either in prison, or confined at home by infirmities, or by an injunction of government. The last idea seems the most probable, though he might be released by the day that Baruch read. The same Hebrew word is used in Neh 6:10.
Jer 36:12. Elnathan, son of Achbor. He is also named Urijah, and was arrested in Egypt: Jer 26:22.
Jer 36:23. Leaves. The LXX use the word , selidas, which signifies columns.
Jer 36:30. His dead body shall be cast out. This was done by the Chaldean soldiers, when they ravaged the tombs for treasures: Jer 22:18-19.
REFLECTIONS.
The eyes of the Lord are ever watchful of the weal of man. An extraordinary fast had already been appointed, that the Lord would avert the calamity of the menaced invasion: and the Lord was graciously pleased to send them an additional sermon to promote the recollections of the day. This sermon was an epitome of all that God had said to them by the ministry of Jeremiah; for while the people retained their sins, God would not relax his threatenings.
The communication made from the Lord, contained an overture of grace. It may be, said the Lord, that the house of Judah will hear all the evil which I purpose to do unto them, that they may return every man from his evil way; and that I may forgive their iniquity and their sin. God addressed them in similar words by Eze 12:3; and by Amo 5:15. They are repeated also by Jer 26:12; and by Zep 2:9. Hence we learn, that there is a harmony between the purposes of providence and the repentance of man; for the goodness of God, in the suspension of punishment, leadeth to repentance. He foretels evil as a father when addressing a profligate son, whose tears attest that he by no means wills the evils to come upon his own child. If this had been a genuine fast, as in the days of Hezekiah, the Lord would really have delivered them from the king of Babylon. The Lord commanding the substance of his terrors to be written, principally designed to convey the warning to the court. And as they would not stoop to hear a solitary prophet, he knew that a manuscript was most likely to interest their attention. How kind and condescending is the Lord to the weakness and prejudice of erring man. But ah, unbelief, that fatal root of Satan in the human heart, frustrated all the good. The terrible word of the Lord produced no confession, no tears, no rending of raiment, and no amendment of life. The council thought it a great favour that they desired the scribe and the prophet to hide themselves. They seemed friendly, but followed the royal passion.
Wicked men not only reject the word of the Lord, but they have enmity in their hearts against both the word and its ministers. The king, through curiosity or fear, heard indeed the writing read; but he burnt it as Jehudi proceeded, and then sought to wreak his vengeance on the scribe and the prophet. What would the wicked do? They cannot pull thee from thy high throne; therefore they turn their fury against thy servants. Thus the sacred ministry is sure to produce effect. It is the savour of life unto life, or of death unto death.
Men who spurn at the gracious overtures of mercy, rush on the sharp sword of divine justice. The king, by adding this insult to all his former sins, forfeited the throne, and brought wrath on his family. Jehoiakim, a child, did indeed succeed his father, but he was deposed in three months; and Zedekiah, his uncle, though called his brother, was placed by Nebuchadnezzar on the throne. 2Ch 36:10. Thus the wicked by a single stroke of the axe are cut off, and wither under the displeasure of the Almighty. What a mirror for the infidels of all ages! Who ever hardened themselves against the Lord, and prospered?
Jeremiah 36. The Writing of the Roll.This chapter narrates how the oral prophecies of Jeremiah were first put into writing (604 B.C.). The account is obviously important for the criticism of this book see Introduction, 4, for the probable contents of the roll. The circumstances also throw light on the origin of written prophecy in general; the failure of the oral testimony (Jer 36:3 cf. Isa 8:1; Isa 8:16; Isa 30:8) led to its preservation through writing. The pioneers amongst the so-called literary prophets are not primarily writers at all; the written records of their work are largely incidental, a fact which helps to explain the fragmentary and complex character of much of the prophetic literature, due, as it largely is, to the work of disciples. On Hebrew writing materials, see the article, Writing by Kenyon, in HDB.
Jer 36:1-8 (The first roll written). Jeremiah is told to write down his prophecies of the last twenty-two years (Jer 25:1; Jer 25:3) relating to Jerusalem (so read with LXX for Israel in Jer 36:2), Judah, and the nations, in the hope that Judah may yet repent (Jer 26:3). Accordingly, he dictates them to Baruch (Jer 32:12, and see Introduction), and tells him to read them publicly in the Temple on a fast day (Jer 36:6 mg.), since he is unable to go there himself. Baruch does this (Jer 36:8 summarises the following narrative, Jer 36:9-26).
Jer 36:5. I am restrained, mg.: this cannot mean imprisoned in view of Jer 36:19; it may refer to ceremonial uncleanness (cf. 1Sa 21:7, Neh 6:10), or, perhaps, to a restraint through the prophetic spirit.
Jer 36:9-26 (The roll read and destroyed). In the winter (Nov.Dec.) of the following year, Baruch uses the opportunity of a fast to read the roll in the room of Gemariah. Its contents are reported to the princes in the secretarys room at the palace (below the Temple, Jer 26:10), and they send for Baruch to read it again to them. They are alarmed by it, and decide that the king must be told. They ask how it came to be written, and Baruch replies that it was dictated to him. They tell him to go into hiding with his master, and they go to Jehoiakim; he sends for the roll, and hears it in his winter house (Amo 3:15), sitting by the fire. When three or four columns (Jer 36:23 mg.) of the roll have been read, the king repeatedly cuts them off, and throws them into the fire, till all has been read and burnt. This he does in spite of the entreaty of some of those in attendance (which stood beside the king, Jer 36:21; cf. Jdg 3:19). The king sends in vain to arrest the prophet and his secretary.
Jer 36:9. a fast: some special day of humiliation; cf. 2Sa 12:22, 1Ki 21:27, Zec 7:5.
Jer 36:10. Gemariah: son of the Shaphan of 2Ki 22:3 ff., and brother of the Ahikam of Jer 26:24.
Jer 36:16. Omit unto Baruch with LXX.
Jer 36:17. Omit at his mouth with LXX.
Jer 36:20. court should perhaps be emended into chamber or cabinet (cf. 1Ki 1:15), in view of Jer 36:22.
Jer 36:23. The tenses denote repeated action.
Jer 36:26. kings son: royal prince.
Jer 36:27-32 (The second roll written). Since the king has destroyed the first roll, owing to its anticipation of a successful Babylonian invasion (Jer 25:9 f.), Yahweh announces that the king shall leave no successor to his throne (as a matter of fact, his son Jehoiachin succeeded him for three months only; cf. Jer 37:1), and shall lie unburied (Jer 22:19), whilst the evils foretold for the people shall come upon them. Jeremiah is to rewrite all that was written; he does this (through Baruch) on a second roll, with many additions.
36:1 And it came to pass in the fourth {a} year of Jehoiakim the son of Josiah king of Judah, [that] this word came to Jeremiah from the LORD, saying,
(a) Read Geneva “Jer 25:1”
Its writing 36:1-8
The Lord sent a message to Jeremiah in the fourth year of King Jehoiakim’s reign, sometime between April of 605 and April of 604 B.C. (cf. Jer 25:1)
"The preaching of Jeremiah offers Judah an opportunity to turn from their sinful ways and avoid destruction, but Jehoiakim’s rejection of the prophetic word brings Judah under a sentence of irrevocable judgment. The ’fourth year of Jehoiakim’ (605 BC) is a critical moment in Judah’s history where the fate of the nation is sealed and Babylon under Nebuchadnezzar emerges as the human instrument of divine judgment. Deliverance is reserved for only a tiny minority (the Rechabites and Baruch) who reflect faithfulness in their lives. National restoration will only come in the distant future when that faithfulness characterizes the nation as a whole (cf. Jer 31:31-34)." [Note: Gary E. Yates, "Narrative Parallelism and the ’Jehoiakim Frame’: A Reading Strategy for Jeremiah 26-45," Journal of the Evangelical Theological Society 48:2 (June 2005):281.]
CHAPTER III
THE ROLL
Jer 36:1-32
“Take thee a roll of a book, and write therein all the words that I have spoken unto thee.”- Jer 36:2
THE incidents which form so large a proportion of the contents of our book do not make up a connected narrative; they are merely a series of detached pictures: we can only conjecture the doings and experiences of Jeremiah during the intervals. Chapter 26 leaves him still exposed to the persistent hostility of the priests and prophets, who had apparently succeeded in once more directing popular feeling against their antagonist. At the same time, though the princes were not ill-disposed towards him, they were not inclined to resist the strong pressure brought to bear upon them. Probably the attitude of the populace varied from time to time, according to the presence among them of the friends or enemies of the prophet; and, in the same way, we cannot think of “the princes” as a united body, governed by a single impulse. The action of this group of notables might be determined by the accidental preponderance of one or other of two opposing parties. Jeremiahs only real assurance of safety lay in the personal protection extended to him by Ahikam ben Shaphan. Doubtless other princes associated themselves with Ahikam in his friendly action on behalf of the prophet.
Under these circumstances, Jeremiah would find it necessary to restrict his activity. Utter indifference to danger was one of the most ordinary characteristics of Hebrew prophets, and Jeremiah was certainly not wanting in the desperate courage which may be found in any Mohammedan dervish. At the same time he was far too practical, too free from morbid self-consciousness, to court martyrdom for its own sake. If he had presented himself again in the Temple when it was crowded with worshippers, his life might have been taken in a popular tumult, while his mission was still only half accomplished. Possibly his priestly enemies had found means to exclude him from the sacred precincts.
Mans extremity was Gods opportunity; this temporary and partial silencing of Jeremiah led to a new departure, which made the influence of his teaching more extensive and permanent. He was commanded to commit his prophecies to writing. The restriction of his active ministry was to bear rich fruit, like Pauls imprisonment, and Athanasius exile, and Luthers sojourn in the Wartburg. A short time since there was great danger that Jeremiah and the Divine message entrusted to him would perish together. He did not know how soon he might become once more the mark of popular fury, nor whether Ahikam would still be able to protect him. The roll of the book could speak even if he were put to death.
But Jeremiah was not thinking chiefly abort what would become of his teaching if he himself perished. He had an immediate and particular end in view. His tenacious persistence was not to be baffled by the prospect of mob violence, or by exclusion from the most favourable vantage ground. Renan is fond of comparing the prophets to modern journalists; and this incident is an early and striking instance of the substitution of pen, ink, and paper for the orators tribune. Perhaps the closest modern parallel is that of the speaker who is howled down at a public meeting and hands his manuscript to the reporters.
In the record of the Divine command to Jeremiah, there is no express statement as to what was to be done with the roll; but as the object of writing it was that “perchance the house of Judah might hear and repent,” it is evident that from the first it was intended to be read to the people.
There is considerable difference of opinion as to the contents of the roll. They are described as: “All that I have spoken unto thee concerning Jerusalem and Judah, and all the nations, since I (first) spake unto thee, from the time of Josiah until now.” At first sight this would seem to include all previous utterances, and therefore all the extant prophecies of a date earlier than B.C. 605, i.e., those contained in chapters 1-12, and some portions of 14-20 (we cannot determine which with any exactness), and probably most of those dated in the fourth year of Jehoiakim, i.e., 25 and parts of 45-49. Cheyne, however, holds that the roll simply contained the striking and comprehensive prophecy in chapter 25. The whole series of chapters might very well be described as dealing with Jerusalem, Judah, and the nations; but at the same time 25 might be considered equivalent, by way of summary, to all that had been spoken on these subjects. From various considerations which will appear as we proceed with the narrative, it seems probable that the larger estimate is the more correct, i.e., that the roll contained a large fraction of our Book of Jeremiah, and not merely one or two chapters. We need not, however, suppose that every previous utterance of the prophet, even though still extant, must have been included in the roll; the “all” would of course be understood to be conditioned by relevancy; and the narratives of various incidents are obviously not part of what Jehovah had spoken.
Jeremiah dictated his prophecies, as St. Paul did his epistles, to an amanuensis; he called his disciple Baruch ben Neriah, and dictated to him “all that Jehovah had spoken, upon a book, in the form of a roll.”
It seems clear that, as in 26, the narrative does not exactly follow the order of events, and that Jer 36:9, which records the proclamation of a fast in the ninth month of Jehoiakims fifth year, should be read before Jer 36:5, which begins the account of the circumstances leading up to the actual reading of the roll. We are not told in what month of Jehoiakims fourth year Jeremiah received this command to write his prophecies in a roll, but as they were not read till the ninth month of the fifth year, there must have been an interval of at least ten months or a year between the Divine command and the reading by Baruch. We can scarcely suppose that all or nearly all this delay was caused by Jeremiah and Baruchs waiting for a suitable occasion. The long interval suggests that the dictation took some time, and that therefore the roll was somewhat voluminous in its contents, and that it was carefully compiled, not without a certain amount of revision.
When the manuscript was ready, its authors had to determine the right time at which to read it; they found their desired opportunity in the fast proclaimed in the ninth month. This was evidently an extraordinary fast, appointed in view of some pressing danger; and, in the year following the battle of Carehemish, this would naturally be the advance of Nebuchadnezzar. As our incident took place in the depth of winter, the months must be reckoned according to the Babylonian year, which began in April; and the ninth month, Kisleu, would roughly correspond to our December. The dreaded invasion would be looked for early in the following spring, “at the time when kings go out to battle.” {1Ch 20:1}
Jeremiah does not seem to have absolutely determined from the first that the reading of the roll by Baruch was to be a substitute for his own presence. He had probably hoped that some change for the better in the situation might justify his appearance before a great gathering in the Temple. But when the time came he was “hindered”-we are not told how-and could not go into the Temple. He may have been restrained by his own prudence, or dissuaded by his friends, like Paul when he would have faced the mob in the theatre at Ephesus; the hindrance may have been some ban under which he had been placed by the priesthood, or it may have been some unexpected illness, or legal uncleanness, or some other passing accident, such as Providence often uses to protect its soldiers till their warfare is accomplished.
Accordingly it was Baruch who went up to the Temple. Though he is said to have read the book “in the ears of all the people,” he does not seem to have challenged universal attention as openly as Jeremiah had done; he did not stand forth in the court of the Temple, {Jer 26:2} but betook himself to the “chamber” of the scribe, or secretary of state, Gemariah ben Shaphan, the brother of Jeremiahs protector Ahikam. This chamber would be one of the cells built round the upper court, from which the “new gate” {Cf. Jer 26:10} led into an inner court of the Temple. Thus Baruch placed himself formally under the protection of the owner of the apartment, and any violence offered to him would have been resented and avenged by this powerful noble with his kinsmen and allies. Jeremiahs disciple and representative took his seat at the door of the chamber, and, in full view of the crowds who passed and repassed through the new gate, opened his roll and began to read aloud from its contents. His reading was yet another repetition of the exhortations, warnings, and threats which Jeremiah had rehearsed on the feast day when he spake to the people “all that Jehovah had commanded him”; and still both Jehovah and His prophet promised deliverance as the reward of repentance. Evidently the head and front of the nations offence had been no open desertion of Jehovah for idols, else His servants would not have selected for their audience His enthusiastic worshippers as they thronged to His Temple. The fast itself might have seemed a token of penitence, but it was not accepted by Jeremiah, or put forward by the people, as a reason why the prophecies of ruin should not be fulfilled. No one offers the very natural plea: “In this fast we are humbling ourselves under the mighty hand of God, we are confessing our sins, and consecrating ourselves afresh to service of Jehovah. What more does He expect of us? Why does He still withhold His mercy and forgiveness? Wherefore have we fasted, and Thou seest not? Wherefore have we afflicted our soul, and Thou takest no knowledge?” Such a plea would probably have received an answer similar to that given by one of Jeremiahs successors: “Behold, in the day of your fast ye find your own pleasure, and oppress all your labourers. Behold, ye fast for strife and contention, and to smite with the fist of wickedness: ye fast not this day so as to make your voice to be heard on high. Is such the fast that I have chosen? the day for a man to afflict his soul? Is it to bow down his head as a rush, and to spread sackcloth and ashes under him? wilt thou call this a fast, and a day acceptable to Jehovah?”
“Is not this the fast that I have chosen? to loose the bonds of wickedness, to undo the bands of the yoke, and to let the oppressed go free, and that ye break every yoke? Is it not to deal thy bread to the hungry, and that thou bring the poor that are cast out to thy house? when thou seest the naked, that thou cover him; and that thou hide not thyself from thine own flesh? Then shall thy light break forth as the morning, and thy healing shall spring forth speedily: and thy righteousness shall go before thee; the glory of Jehovah shall be thy rearward.” {Isa 58:3-8}
Jeremiahs opponents did not grudge Jehovah His burnt offerings and calves of a year old; He was welcome to thousands of rams, and ten thousands of rivers of oil. They were even willing to give their firstborn for their transgression, the whether the title “scribe” refers to the fruit of their body for the sin of their soul; but they were not prepared “to do justly, and to love mercy, and to walk humbly with their God.” {Mic 6:6-8}
We are not told how Jeremiah and the priests and prophets formulated the points at issue between them, which were so thoroughly and universally understood that the record takes them for granted. Possibly Jeremiah contended for the recognition of Deuteronomy, with its lofty ideals of pure religion and a humanitarian order of society. But, in any case, these incidents were an early phase of the age long struggle of the prophets of God against the popular attempt to make ritual and sensuous emotion into excuses for ignoring morality, and to offer the cheap sacrifice of a few unforbidden pleasures, rather than surrender the greed of gain, the lust of power, and the sweetness of revenge.
When the multitudes caught the sound of Baruchs voice and saw him sitting in the doorway of Gemariahs chamber, they knew exactly what they would hear. To them he was almost as antagonistic as a Protestant evangelist would be to the worshippers at some great Romanist feast; or perhaps we might find a closer parallel in a Low Church bishop addressing a ritualistic audience. For the hearts of these hearers were not steeled by the consciousness of any formal schism. Baruch and the great prophet whom he represented did not stand outside the recognised limits of Divine inspiration. While the priests and prophets and their adherents repudiated his teaching as heretical, they were still haunted by the fear that, at any rate, his threats might have some Divine authority. Apart from all theology, the prophet of evil always finds an ally in the nervous fears and guilty conscience of his hearer.
The feelings of the people would be similar to those with which they had heard the same threats against Judah, the city and the Temple, from Jeremiah himself. But the excitement aroused by the defeat of Pharaoh and the hasty return of Nebuchadnezzar to Babylon had died away. The imminence of a new invasion made it evident that this had not been the Divine deliverance of Judah. The people were cowed by what must have seemed to many the approaching fulfilments of former threatenings; the ritual of a fast was in itself depressing; so that they had little spirit to resent the message of doom. Perhaps too there was less to resent: the prophecies were the same, but Baruch may have been less unpopular than Jeremiah, and his reading would be tame and ineffective compared to the fiery eloquence of his master. Moreover the powerful protection which shielded him was indicated not only by the place he occupied, but also by the presence of Gemariahs son, Micaiah.
The reading passed off without any hostile demonstration on the part of the people, and Micaiah went in search of his father to describe to him the scene he had just witnessed. He found him in the palace, in the chamber of the secretary of state, Elishama, attending a council of the princes. There were present, amongst others, Elnathan ben Achbor, who brought Uriah back from Egypt, Delaiah ben Shemaiah, and Zedekiah ben Hananiah. Micaiah told them what he had heard. They at once sent for Baruch and the roll. Their messenger, Jehudi ben Nethaniah, seems to have been a kind of court usher. His name signifies “the Jew,” and as his great-grandfather was Cushi, “the Ethiopian,” it has been suggested that he came of a family of Ethiopian descent, which had only attained in his generation to Jewish citizenship.
When Baruch arrived, the princes greeted him with the courtesy and even deference due to the favourite disciple of a distinguished prophet. They invited him to sit down and read them the roll. Baruch obeyed; the method of reading suited the enclosed room and the quiet, interested audience of responsible men, better than the swaying crowd gathered round the door of Gemariahs chamber. Baruch now had before him ministers of state who knew from their official information and experience how extremely probable it was that the words to which they were listening would find a speedy and complete fulfilment. Baruch must almost have seemed to them like a doomster who announces to a condemned criminal the ghastly details of his coming execution. They exchanged looks of dismay and horror, and when the reading was over, they said to one another, “We must tell the king of all these words.” First, however, they inquired concerning the exact circumstances under which the roll had been written, that they might know how far responsibility in this matter was to be divided between the prophet and his disciple, and also whether all the contents rested upon the full authority of Jeremiah. Baruch assured them that it was simply a case of dictation: Jeremiah had uttered every word with his own mouth, and he had faithfully written it down; everything was Jeremiahs own.
The princes were well aware that the prophets action would probably be resented and punished by Jehoiakim. They said to Baruch: “Do you and Jeremiah go and hide yourselves, and let no one know where you are.” They kept the roll and laid it up in Elishamas room; then they went to the king. They found him in his winter room, in the inner court of the palace, sitting in front of a brasier of burning charcoal. On this fast day the kings mind might well be careful and troubled, as he meditated on the kind of treatment that he, the nominee of Pharaoh Necho, was likely to receive from Nebuchadnezzar. We cannot tell whether he contemplated resistance or had already resolved to submit to the conqueror. In either case he would wish to act on his own initiative, and might be anxious lest a Chaldean party should get the upper hand in Jerusalem and surrender him and the city to the invader.
When the princes entered, their number and their manner would at once indicate to him that their errand was both serious and disagreeable. He seems to have listened in silence while they made their report of the incident at the door of Gemariahs chamber and their own interview with Baruch. The king sent for the roll by Jehudi, who had accompanied the princes into the presence chamber; and on his return the same serviceable official read its contents before Jehoiakim and the princes, whose number was now augmented by the nobles in attendance upon the king. Jehudi had had the advantage of hearing Baruch read the roll, but ancient Hebrew manuscripts were not easy to decipher, and probably Jehudi stumbled somewhat; altogether the reading of prophecies by a court usher would not be a very edifying performance, or very gratifying to Jeremiahs friends. Jehoiakim treated the matter with deliberate and ostentatious contempt. At the end of every three or four columns, he put out his hand for the roll, cut away the portion that had been read, and threw it on the fire; then he handed the remainder back to Jehudi, and the reading was resumed till the king thought fit to repeat the process. It at once appeared that the audience was divided into two parties. When Gemariahs father, Shaphan, had read Deuteronomy to Josiah, the king rent his clothes; but now the writer tells us, half aghast, that neither Jehoiakim nor any of his servants were afraid or rent their clothes, but the audience, including doubtless both court officials and some of the princes, looked on with calm indifference. Not so the princes who had been present at Baruchs reading: they had probably induced him to leave the roll with them, by promising that it should be kept safely; they had tried to keep it out of the kings hands by leaving it in Elishamas room, and now they made another attempt to save it from destruction. They entreated Jehoiakim to refrain from open and insolent defiance of a prophet who might after all be speaking in the name of Jehovah. But the king persevered. The alternate reading and burning went on; the unfortunate ushers fluency and clearness would not be improved by the extraordinary conditions under which he had to read; and we may well suppose that the concluding columns were hurried over in a somewhat perfunctory fashion, if they were read at all. As soon as the last shred of parchment was shrivelling on the charcoal, Jehoiakim commanded three of his officers to arrest Jeremiah and Baruch. But they had taken the advice of the princes and were not to be found: “Jehovah hid them.”
Thus the career of Baruchs roll was summarily cut short. But it had done its work; it had been read on three separate occasions, first before the people, then before the princes, and last of all before the king and his court. If Jeremiah had appeared in person, he might have been at once arrested, and put to death like Uriah. No doubt this threefold recital was, on the whole, a failure; Jeremiahs party among the princes had listened with anxious deference, but the appeal had been received by the people with indifference and by the king with contempt. Nevertheless it must have strengthened individuals in the true faith, and it had proclaimed afresh that the religion of Jehovah gave no sanction to the policy of Jehoiakim: the ruin of Judah would be a proof of the sovereignty of Jehovah and not of His impotence. But probably this incident had more immediate influence over the king than we might at first sight suppose. When Nebuchadnezzar arrived in Palestine, Jehoiakim submitted to him a policy entirely in accordance with the views of Jeremiah. We may well believe that the experiences of this fast day had strengthened the hands of the prophets friends, and cooled the enthusiasm of the court for more desperate and adventurous courses. Every years respite for Judah fostered the growth of the true religion of Jehovah.
The sequel showed how much more prudent it was to risk the existence of a roll rather than the life of a prophet. Jeremiah was only encouraged to persevere. By the Divine command, he dictated his prophecies afresh to Baruch, adding besides unto them many like words. Possibly other copies were made of the whole or parts of this roll, and were secretly circulated, read, and talked about. We are not told whether Jehoiakim ever heard this new roll; but, as one of the many like things added to the older prophecies was a terrible personal condemnation of the king, we may be sure that he was not allowed to remain in ignorance, at any rate, of this portion of it.
The second roll was, doubtless, one of the main sources of our present Book of Jeremiah, and the narrative of this chapter is of considerable importance for Old Testament criticism. It shows that a prophetic book may not go back to any prophetic autograph at all; its most original sources may be manuscripts written at the prophets dictation, and liable to all the errors which are apt to creep into the most faithful work of an amanuensis. It shows further that, even when a prophets utterances were written down during his lifetime, the manuscript may contain only his recollections of what he said years before, and that these might be either expanded or abbreviated, sometimes even unconsciously modified, in the light of subsequent events. Jer 36:32 shows that Jeremiah did not hesitate to add to the record of his former prophecies “many like words”: there is no reason to suppose that these were all contained in an appendix; they would often take the form of annotations.
The important part played by Baruch as Jeremiahs secretary and representative must have invested him with full authority to speak for his master and expound his views; such authority points to Baruch as the natural editor of our present book, which is virtually the “Life and Writings” of the prophet. The last words of our chapter are ambiguous, perhaps intentionally. They simply state that many like words were added, and do not say by whom; they might even include additions made later on by Baruch from his own reminiscences.
In conclusion, we may notice that both the first and second copies of the roll were written by the direct Divine command, just as in the Hexateuch and the Book of Samuel we read of Moses, Joshua, and Samuel committing certain matters to writing at the bidding of Jehovah. We have here the recognition of the inspiration of the scribe, as ancillary to that of the prophet. Jehovah not only gives His word to His servants, but watches over its preservation and transmission. But there is no inspiration to write any new revelation: the spoken word, the consecrated life, are inspired; the book is only a record of inspired speech and action.
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
Fuente: William Kelly Major Works (New Testament)
Fuente: You Can Understand the Bible: Study Guide Commentary Series by Bob Utley
Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics
Fuente: Through the Bible Commentary
Fuente: Old and New Testaments Restoration Commentary
Fuente: An Exposition on the Whole Bible
Fuente: F.B. Meyer’s Through the Bible Commentary
Fuente: Commentaries on the New Testament and Prophets
Fuente: The Sermon Bible
Fuente: Gaebelein’s Annotated Bible (Commentary)
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
Fuente: Neighbour’s Wells of Living Water
Fuente: Combined Bible Commentary
Fuente: Joseph Bensons Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
Fuente: Sutcliffe’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
Fuente: Peake’s Commentary on the Bible
Fuente: Geneva Bible Notes
Fuente: Expository Notes of Dr. Constable (Old and New Testaments)
Fuente: Expository Notes of Dr. Constable (Old and New Testaments)
Fuente: Expositors Bible Commentary